The City Council of public power community Harbor Springs, Mich., recently voted to adopt a resolution issuing a Notice of Intent letting the community know that there is a proposed bond issue for paying part of the cost of acquiring, constructing, furnishing and equipping improvements to the city’s electric system, including a new electric substation and transmission line improvements.
The City Council voted on the proposal on March 17.
After the notice, the city must wait 45 days before issuing the bonds to give residents an opportunity to petition for the bond issuance to be decided at the ballot box.
To do so, the petition must be signed by at least 10% of registered voters. If the referendum period expires with no successful petition, then the City Council would need to adopt a resolution to authorize the issuance of the bond and that resolution would determine the amount of the bond issue to be financed.
“For the Notice of Intent, we are recommending an amount not to exceed $10,000,000 so Council can begin thinking about how much it wants to bond for (and for which projects),” an agenda for the meeting noted.
The bond would cover the following projects, which were determined to be the most important upcoming projects after discussions with the city’s Electric Engineer and Department.
- Substation materials and construction (except for the first payment for the transformer): $4.7 million (a. 46kV transmission line rebuild and meter upgrades (completed alongside substation): $1.8 million
- M-119 Line Rebuild Phase 3 and Phase 4: $1.5 million (conservative estimate)
- AMI Metering: $1.5 million (conservative estimate)
The projects would have to be completed within three years of the bond issuance.
