From The Loveland Reporter-Herald (Max Levy):
Loveland’s City Council gave the first OK to issuing $47 million worth of bonds for the proposed Chimney Hollow Reservoir on Tuesday, clearing one of the last obstacles in the way of the project breaking ground.
Between 2000 and 2020, the city contributed about $8.4 million to the construction of the 90,000-acre-foot reservoir, also known as the Windy Gap Firming Project…
Loveland’s water utility is one of a dozen Northern Colorado agencies partnering on Chimney Hollow. The city has laid claim to one-ninth of the water in the future reservoir and assumed responsibility for one-ninth of project costs, which are now expected to total about $696.2 million…
On Tuesday, the council gave the first of two affirmative votes needed to issue bonds worth $47 million, which along with $21.9 million in the Raw Water Fund already earmarked for the project and the $8.4 million already spent will be enough to cover Loveland’s stake in the project.
In addition to the $47 million in bonds issued for Chimney Hollow, the council also voted to approve the issue of $5.5 million in bonds for a new water storage tank at 29th Street and Rio Blanco Avenue, as well as the refinancing of $8.1 million in year-2013 bonds for improvements at the Loveland Water Treatment Plant, which chief financial officer Alan Krcmarik guessed will save the city about $850,000. About $523,490 in proceeds will also be spent on the costs associated with the issuance itself.
The $61.3 million in revenue bonds will be repaid through the Water Enterprise Fund, which receives payments from the city’s utility customers.
Krcmarik said the 25-year life of the bond issue was chosen as the shortest increment of time during which the city could pay the securities down without disrupting its current projection of average fee increases for customers — 7% in 2022 and 2023, then 3.5% per year until 2031.