Town seeks a refi for $800,000 savings

Coulee Dam plans to submit an application for a 1.5-percent loan from the State Drinking Water Revolving Fund, which would enable the town to refinance a current U.S. Department of Agriculture loan on which it is paying 4.5 percent.

Jeff Stevens of Gray & Osborne, the town’s engineering firm, advised town officials that the application was due March 1, and if Coulee Dam is successful in its request, it would save the town some $800,000 and cut 12 years off its present loan.

The town currently pays nearly $80,000 a year now on the $1.35 million loan for its drinking water filtration plant. The town made its first payment on that loan in 2004, and that loan is due to be paid off in 2043.

Mayor Quincy Snow got grants of more than $4 million on the $5.9 million project, which reduced the loan the town had to carry to $1.3 million.

If the new application is successful, and the town can refinance, the duration of the new loan would be 20 years, with a small hike in annual payments.

Town Clerk Carol Visker told the town council Feb. 22 that the state has $130 million available for state projects.

“While it isn’t certain that we will be successful in a loan application, we are going to try,” she stated. Visker said Stevens was optimistic about the application.