Commissioners authorize courthouse bonds

By BILL RICHMOND

City editor

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners Monday approved a lease agreement with the the Randolph County Building Corporation and the issuance of bonds, giving the final go-ahead for the courthouse renovation and the construction of a court annex.

The board voted 2-1 in favor of the measure with commissioner Ron Chalfant dissenting.

"I felt like the new people coming on the board ought to have a chance to weigh in on the issue," Chalfant said after the meeting concluded. "I don't think the recent election, by any means, was a referendum on the courthouse - but I do think we could have waited another month."

Courthouse project manager Lester "Spike" Shepler, Jr., said the courthouse project team has worked hard to get things done the way the commissioners wanted within the funding stream they specified.

Financial advisor Jason Semler for H.J. Umbaugh and Associates said the county received an "A" bond rating through independent credit rating provider Standard & Poor's. He said the stock market is settling down now and everything is looking positive for the future of the project.

"With this cash flow, you will have a reserve set aside," Semler said. "The special EDIT (a temporary Economic Development Income Tax increase created by the state legislature to fund the courthouse renovation) is based upon the county's adjusted gross income which has continued to go up over the years. Over the years, you have lost jobs with some of your larger employers and still the county's adjusted gross income has gone up."

Semler said there's a chance the county's EDIT rate will go down with the continuing economic downturn. That is the reason they have $900,000 set aside for a backup. He said it would take a number of years of continual decrease in local employment before the county would have to access the backup fund.

Tom Pitman of Baker and Daniels, who serves as the county's bond council for this project, also said it would take a lot of unemployment in the county before they would have to dip into the reserve fund.

"We have a real question about obligating the county for such a long period of time because the future of the economy is so uncertain," Chalfant said.

Pitman said the A-rating by Standard & Poor's should give the county a great deal of reassurance.

"They're the ones who study the market and they don't issue A-ratings lightly," Pitman said. "That's as close as you'll get to an outside objective opinion.

"There is a risk that possibly you will have to dip into the regular EDIT reserve, but you'll never have to raise taxes as a result of this project."

Shepler said the current project cost is $10.6 million, including relocation costs, which is about $300,000 under the original budget which did not include relocation. He said current plans call for temporarily relocating courthouse employees and services to someplace off the downtown square. The county is currently in negotiations with the owner of more than one off-site location.

The commissioners approved a resolution amending the lease agreement to authorize a $900,000 (a figure based on one full year of lost income from the EDIT fund that would make the bond payments) reserve fund for the courthouse improvement.

Before a vote was cast, local businessman Don Matchett asked if the resolution would mean a long-term obligation that the incoming commissioners cannot undo. Commissioners-elect Troy Prescott and Noel "Bud" Carpenter have both expressed an interest in dramatically reducing the scope, and thus the cost, of the courthouse project.

"This has been going on for years," Pitman said. "This is not something that's been sprung at the last minute. This is a completion process, not a beginning process."

The commissioners also approved a resolution to accept the lease agreement with the building corporation and a motion to authorize Edward Jones Investments as underwriter to issue bonds for the courthouse project. All three votes were approved by a 2:1 margin with commissioners David Lenkensdofer and Kathy Beumer approving and Chalfant voting against the measures.

Lenkensdofer said the decisions authorize the county to proceed with the courthouse renovation and annex.

The commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance to establish a County Tourism Commission to oversee the recently established Randolph County innkeeper's tax. The bipartisan commission will have 11 appointees, nine selected by the commissioners and two chosen by Winchester Mayor Steve Croyle (as chief administrator of the county's largest town).

The 5 percent county innkeeper's tax was established by County Council in June and went into effect Aug. 1 of this year. The county Tourism Bureau will begin drawing on it in January, 2009.

Money from the innkeeper's tax, charged to people who stay at local hotels and bed and breakfasts, will be used to promote tourism in the county.