Road repair bid approved

By Samantha Pidde
Herald Staff Writer

July 02, 2009 10:21 am

— CLINTON — The Clinton County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday to approve bids from a bond sale, which will be used for the construction, reconstruction and repair of the county road system.
Bruce R. Slagle of Springsted presented the bids for a $1,885,000 bond, which were received after 10 a.m. Wednesday. The bids were accepted through a competitive process. Slagle had been instructed by the board to pursue a bank-qualified, tax-exempt bond on a 10-year schedule.
He said they looked at the Build America bonds.
“We have quite a bit of experience already in doing those. We looked at it for this purpose. However, based on a couple of reasons — one is the first year’s pay off, the 10-year issue and so on — it just did not make financial sense for you to go that way on this particular issue,” said Slagle.
Slagle instead decided to hold these competitive bid process. Bidders could submit their information electronically or through fax. Eight bids were received. However, Slagle said two of the bids were kicked out because one did not send a required “good faith” deposit and the other did not send through necessary federal numbers. The lowest bid came in from UMB Bank, N.A., from Kansas City, Mo. The offered price was $1,873,463 at a true interest rate of 3.130 percent.
“Based on what we assumed on some interest rates when we did the recommendation, it is going to give you a little more funds,” said Slagle. He said with this bid, the county will receive $8,400 more to project funds.
Supervisor Jill Davisson raised the question of whether they could accept the next lowest bid of $1,876,536.35 at a rate of 3.1918 percent from the Country Club Bank, N.A. Clinton National Bank. She said for a difference of $3,073, she would rather consider the local bidder. Slagle said, however, since the bidding process was as a national competitive sale, they are required to accept the lowest bidder.
The board approved accepting the bid from UMB Bank, N.A.