By By JAN GRIFFEY / Niles Daily Star
NILES -- An investment banker who was in charge of the city's recent water system improvement bond sale praised the city's administration Monday night, saying work it had done, along with the city's A1 credit rating, saved the citizens of Niles tens of thousands of dollars in the bond sale.
Warren Creamer of Robert W. Baird of Traverse City said, "There are very few deals where everything works absolutely perfectly, and this was one of those."
The city council on Monday approved a resolution giving final authorization to the sale of up to $6 million in Limted Tax General Obligation Bonds, which will fund water system infrastructure improvements.
Creamer said the bonds were sold at an interest rate about three-tenths of a percent below projections, thanks to the work and planning of City Administrator Terry Eull, Utilities Manager Jim Lehmkuhl and City Clerk Ruth Harte.
He said the lower interest rate means the city will "save well over a quarter of a million dollars on a present-value basis."
Creamer said the city's extremely positive credit rating of A-1, "which I've never seen in a community the size of Niles," also saved the city about $30,000 in administrative fees associated with the bond sale.
In other business Monday evening, the council:
Phillips said the intersection is dangerous and has been the site of numerous traffic accidents, including a fatal accident on Oct. 29, in which a 58-year-old Buchanan man was killed.
He asked for the city council's assistance in that effort.
Each council member applauded Phillips' efforts and Eull told him he had been working for about 10 years with officials at the Michigan Department of Transportation to get a red-and-green traffic signal installed at that intersection.
The council set that hearing for Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 5:30 p.m. in the council's chambers at 16 S. Third St.