City borrows $850,000 to finance underfunded projects
New senior center, waterfront arbitration, infrastructure costs to be paid off
The city is borrowing about $850,000 to fund several projects that were previously approved by the council.
These costs “had not [been] provided adequate liquidity or cash,” Kaplan said at the Dec. 5 council meeting.
One ordinance was to fund the new senior center, built in the Springwood Center on Springwood Avenue. That project cost the city $3,295,000, but $95,000 is still unfunded, Kaplan said.
The city also needs to fund arbitration and litigation costs with waterfront redeveloper iStar Financial. The city needs to pay the total cost, $250,000, as none of it has been financed, Kaplan said.
Finally, a portion of the cost of engineering and infrastructure work on Springwood Avenue and in the downtown is still owed. This totals $500,000, Kaplan said.
“The combination of those three is $832,293,” Kaplan said. “It was deteremined the most accurate way to fund those was through the Monmouth County Improvement Authority.”
The authority pooled those three expenses together and interest for the city will be just over 2 percent, Kaplan said.
In July, external auditor Dave Kaplan recommended that cash deficits be funded, as part of his audit for the city’s 2011 finances.
“This was part of the corrective action plan we presented to the council” as a result of the audit,” city manager Terence Reidy said. “This completes that part of the corrective action plan, which I’m pleased about.”
