City officials won’t request Juneau residents to contribute for the upgrades in the Dimond Park Field House – an indoor track that is accessible to the public but not with wheelchair accessibility – by an annual bond. Instead Juneau Assembly members plan to ask for Juneau Assembly plans to only request city hall funds.
The Assembly is scheduled to decide whether or not to place an investment bond worth $27 million to fund City Hall on an ballot in October in the coming month.
In an assembly of the finance committee Wednesday night, director of finance Jeff Rogers said one benefit of the use of bonds for financing projects is that it aligns the person who’s the one paying for a project and those who use the product.
“Debt can be described as a form of structure which allows you to say, ‘We’re planning to create something today using funds we don’t have and then it’s going be paid in the coming 25 years by the users to build it,'” he said.
Rogers said that if the Assembly intends to keep the mill rate for debt service at 1.2 which is what it typically utilizes as a limit – then the city could borrow $48 million in debt.
Assemblyman Greg Smith floated the idea of a bond worth $2 million in Dimond Park Field House. Dimond Park Field House, either by itself or in an overall bond package that includes the other park projects. The stairs connect the field house’s turf field with the indoor track however there is no elevator or ramp.
“We are aware of an ADA issue, but the turf requires replacement, and there are issues with energy efficiency,” Smith said.
However, one of the members Wade Bryson said putting a second bond, smaller in size, on the ballot could be a way to draw attention away from that city hall bond. The previous year the $35 million bond idea for city hall was a narrow defeat, and city hall’s $6.6 million bond proposed for parks projects was approved.
“If we put an additional bond forward we’ll see the exact same results as we did the last time”” he added.
Mayor Beth Weldon and Deputy Mayor Maria Gladziszewski agreed. They both said it was now too late in the budget process to come up with a new bond proposal.
“I believe having another bond on the ballot could create confusion for a very crucial vote we must be able to City Hall,” Weldon stated.
Smith was in agreement and stated that Smith was in favor of putting only the city hall bond in the election.
The field house The Assembly declined the request for $1 million in May to pay for an elevator. However, it did grant one million dollars from its deferred maintenance fund to ADA improvements to the area.
Public members are invited to comment on the bond for city hall idea during the Assembly’s July 10 meeting.
