The Bartlesville Municipal Authority and Bartlesville City Council took actions on Monday that will allow the City to refinance its loan for the Ted D. Lockin Water Treatment Plant, saving taxpayers roughly $1.3 million over the remaining 14-year loan period.
The BMA, which consists of City Council members, met briefly on Monday to approve the matter, as the BMA action is required to incur debt on behalf of the City.
The water treatment plant was constructed in 2004 utilizing a $40-plus million loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. The plant was refinanced last year in an effort to save money, says CFO/City Clerk Jason Muninger.
“Back in November of 2019 we refinanced the original OWRB water plant note of $40,445,000. At the time, only $29,670,000 was remaining on the loan balance,” Muninger said. “This initial refinance was done with RCB Bank and was a taxable note that had a 2.75 percent interest rate, saving taxpayers an estimated $100,000 per year.”
On Monday night, the BMA approved refinancing that note with a non-taxable note with RCB Bank, Muninger said.
“This will allow us to obtain the interest rate of 2 percent, saving taxpayers an additional $90,000-$93,000 per year on the remaining $27,966,000 note. This is a total of about $1.3 million over the remaining 14-year loan period.”
Consultant Jon Wolff of Municipal Finance Services told the council Monday the City has benefitted over the past decade or so in obtaining low interest rates for its infrastructure needs.
“With all of the capital infrastructure you’ve had to address, you’ve addressed it on the very low end of interest rates,” Wolff said. “That translates into some significant savings for you. With everything else you have had to address in providing services to your citizens, this has been a good decade of financings and refinancings. You’ve essentially dropped your rate in half to save your citizens millions of dollars.”
Mayor Dale Copeland commended City staff and others for their role in the savings.
“It has been a decade or more of very careful management and maintaining our credit ratings and all those pieces that made this possible,” Copeland said. “Everyone deserves credit for that — City staff, former councils and all of our supporting groups.