Draft Davidson Public Facilities GO Bond Resolution - $16,335,000

At last month's Davidson Board meeting, Commissioners got the first public glimpse of cost estimates for proposed Public Facilities expenditures to remodel the old Davidson IB Middle School building and the existing Town Hall for Town use.

The numbers were eye popping.

There was much public hand wringing around the dias at the costs of more than $16 million.  There was discussion on how to trim the number.  There seemed to be some genuine concern for the tax implications of spending this amount.

However, on Tuesday Commissioners will consider moving forward on just that.  A "draft" resolution is included in the agenda that seeks to move a GO bond of $16,335,000 to the next step of the process towards a November vote.  That number is actually a bit larger than the numbers presented last month.  Most likely that is due to including issuance costs for the bonds in the bond amount as well.  It also shows that no serious cost trimming was attempted after the public display of concern last month.  Moreover, the entire amount in the draft is in a single bond proposal with the Public Safety and Town Hall money in a single bond.  This leaves open the likelihood of leveraging needed public safety improvements to get wanted additional Town Hall space for staff.

It is hard to see this proposal getting public support when presented this way, but that appears to be where the town is headed.

Draft resolution below.