By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Richland County borrows money for radio tower project
Richland County borrows money for radio tower project

By Matt Johnson

The Richland County Board approved a bond sale May 16 to borrow $8.1 million to pay for its radio tower project.

The sale of bonds will allow for the construction of new towers and an upgrade in radio equipment. Many state counties are abandoning analog radio technology in favor of digital technology. This has led to the need for new towers, tower transmitters/receivers and radios in all vehicles and buildings that use them for communication at every level of municipal government.

In 2022, the county began looking into borrowing for up to $8.5 million for the radio tower project. The total borrowing needed was determined to be $8.1 million in April. The county's municipal bonds for the borrowing were sold on the morning of the county board's meeting, May 16.

Wisconsin Public Finance Professionals, LLC, and Quarles and Brady assisted the county with the bond sale and the preliminary work of getting a new bond rating.

Carol Worth said the bond sale was “great news” for Richland County because it received an upgraded “A1” bond rating from Moody's. Worth said the county was A1 in 2016, but was downgraded to an A2 and then to an A3 in 2018. The upgrade comes as something, “the county has been looking at for a very long time ... six-and-a-half-years,” Worth said.

County Board Chair Marty Brewer asked for “a big round of applause” upon news of the bond rating upgrading.

Worth said the county received an interest rate of 3.49% from the Bank of Oklahoma, which was the low bidder to purchase the bonds. The new bond rating saved the county “a couple hundred thousand dollars,” Worth said.

Richland County currently has payments of $3.194 million annually on its overall debt service.

Overall the county's financial position in relation to the rating is that most economic indicators show the county is in a strong financial position.

Mike Day, consultant for the radio tower project, gave an update for the project.

The last few months has centered around site acquisition for the towers needed, Day said.

“We've spent a lot of time investigating,” Day said.

Day said the tower site acquisition has mainly included plans to lease one-acre sites from landowners.

Day said the project has been set up in a way where future changes in radio tower site location will be minimal.

The project has  moved to a civil engineer which will prepare for a request for proposals for a general contractor for the county.

County supervisor Shaun Murphy-Lopez said the project has been received positively in the public and he thanked all working on the project for their support.

“This is a good-news project so far for the county,” county board chair Brewer said. “Everything we've done looks to be on schedule.”

(Matt Johnson can be reached online at johnsonmedialabs@gmail.com)