CITY OF FREEMAN TO PASS RESOLUTION FOR BOND ISSUE FOR MAIN STREET PROJECT

The city of Freeman is one step closer toward formally approving its Main Street project.

Meeting in special session Tuesday night, March 29, city officials agreed to pass a resolution to issue a sales tax bond to cover about $2.4 million of the estimated $4.4 million capital project that would see Main Street rebuilt from the North County Road to Fifth Street, as well as five blocks of side streets to the east and west of the business district artery.

This step to gain additional funding comes in response to bids for the project coming in significantly higher than estimates.

The council will again meet in special session Thursday, March 31 at 5:30 p.m. to approve the resolution, which will be published in the April 7 issue of The Courier and would go into effect 20 days after publication.

Because it is a sales tax bond issue — meaning repayments would be covered by sales tax revenue already coming to the city — it does not require a public vote.

The bond issue can, however, be petitioned, which is something that city officials said would all but kill the project for years to come because of rising costs, supply shortages and nervous contractors. And even if the public vote upholds the council’s decision to issue bonds, the entire project would have to be rebid.

“You don’t want anybody to rebid anything right now,” said Todd Meierhenry, who spoke to the council at its special meeting Tuesday night on behalf of his Sioux Falls law firm that manages financial strategies like bond issues. “If you want this project, you better do it now; you’re never going to do it cheaper — at least for the near or foreseeable future.”

“If it’s petitioned, it’s done,” councilor Lonnie Tjaden said bluntly. “Then people can look at Main Street the way that it is for the next 15, 20, 30 years.”

“It’s obvious it’s not going to get done any less expensive than it is now,” said council president Blaine Saarie.

The timeframe now in place would put the project 11 days past the 30-day window to approve or reject Redde Construction’s low bid of approximately $4.7 million — a number that does not include engineering fees, change orders and a $600,000 DOT grant that will help cover some of the expense of the project that cumulatively bring it to its $4.4 million price tag.

In spite of the 11 days after the 30-day-deadline, city officials were confident that project engineer Sayre Associates and Reede Construction would allow for the extension in awarding the bid because the city is moving forward with plans for the project as quickly as possible.

“We’re moving forward with it,” said councilor Terry Jacobsen, “but this is the process.”

“We’re moving forward but the wheels grind slow,” said councilor Lonnie Tjaden. “But they grind fine.”