OLIVIA -- City Council members in Olivia awarded a $410,000 bond issue at their meeting Thursday.
Council members awarded the issue to United Banker's Bank of Bloomington. It offered the lowest bid of three submitted. The issue carries a net interest rate of 4.439 percent, reported City Administrator Mike Funk.
The bond will reimburse the city for funding it provided toward a 2003 street improvement project as well as for the BASF Plant Sciences project.
The company is currently building a new and larger facility on a 7-acre site on the western edge of town. Olivia City Council members had previously awarded a $258,000 bid to Duininck Bros. Construction of Prinsburg. The firm built a bituminous roadway to serve the site and extended city water and sewer utilities to it.
The city had obtained a $160,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development -- now called the Department of Employment and Economic Development -- toward the BASF expansion project.
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Under the city's assessment formula, BASF will be assessed $86,686 and the city will be responsible for $122,000 in costs associated with the road and infrastructure development.
In other business, council members approved an application by the Olivia Volunteer Fire Department to take over a pull tab operation at the American Legion Club. The department is currently in the process of finalizing its permit application through the Minnesota Gambling Control Division.
The Fire Department will use a portion of the earnings from the pull tab revenues for the purchase of equipment. It will award the remaining earnings to local nonprofit organizations.
In other matters, council members:
n Learned that the city will receive approximately $14,000 in funds from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Division of Aeronautics for maintenance and operation needs in 2006-07. The amount is identical to the 2005-06 appropriation and represents the first time the state's contribution toward airport costs has not increased.
n Set a public hearing on the municipal liquor store for 7:30 p.m. Dec. 22 in the City Hall council chambers. A public hearing is required when a municipal liquor store shows an earnings loss in two of three years.
The Olivia On/Off Sale showed an approximate $25,000 loss from operations in 2002 and a $2,000 loss in 2004.
The operation is showing a net gain of approximately $25,000 after the first three-quarters of 2005. City Administrator Funk said that the U.S. Highway 212 project which closed the highway for traffic through much of 2002 is believed responsible for the loss experienced that year.
