County Looking at Bonds for Forward Funding SPLOST VI Road Work

Stephens County is working towards forward funding SPLOST VI road projects with bonds.

Last month at a retreat, county commissioners unanimously voted to instruct staff to begin the process of obtaining $4.5 million in bonds to forward fund road work through SPLOST VI.

Stephens County Administrator Phyllis Ayers said the county could obtain up to $8.5 million in bonds for SPLOST VI forward funding.

However, she said SPLOST VI revenues may not come in at a high enough rate to pay a one-time, $8.5 million bond back and still have money to forward fund other things as necessary through SPLOST VI.

According to Ayers, Stephens County is currently averaging getting just over $190,000 a month in the first few months of SPLOST VI collections.

Ayers said it may take that whole $190,000 or close to it each month to cover the cost of the full $8.5 million bond issue if the county went that direction.

She said by issuing a $4.5 million bond at first, then issuing a separate $4 million bond in a couple of years, the county can cover the bond payments and still get other things done through SPLOST VI without waiting until the end of collections in some six years.

Meanwhile, she said if the county did not forward fund the roads and paid for road work as it went, it would take a while to get road work done based on the current monthly SPLOST collections.

“You probably would be waiting about a year before you would get to do some good road work,” said Ayers.

Stephens County Commission Chair Dennis Bell said he feels forward funding is the right course of action to take to get started quicker.

“I think one thing that comes out of this meeting is that we are going to get these roads started,” said Bell. “I think this is the best thing.”

Ayers said that commissioners will also be finalizing a road list at an upcoming meeting for staff to work off of as the county moves forward with this process.