City issues $9.6 million
in bonds for major projects
Lawrence city commissioners awarded bids Tuesday night for issuing $9.6 million in general obligation bonds and temporary notes to finance several projects under way or recently completed.
The package included $2.11 million in 10-year bonds for a number of traffic signals, street repairs and bicycle paths recently completed.
The investment firm of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was named underwriter for that issuance with a low bid of 4.7932 percent interest, for a net interest cost of $651,640 over the life of the bonds.
A more expensive issue was $2.505 million in 15-year taxable bonds to buy the PSI building in west Lawrence that will be converted into a police substation.
Cronin & Co. was the low bidder on that issue, with a 7.7254 percent interest rate.
The bonds are taxable because half the building is leased to a private entity, Oread Inc. City manager Mike Wildgen said the city will refinance those bonds at a lower rate when Oread's lease expires in about four years.
Commissioners also voted to issue $4.655 million in short-term notes through CIBC World Markets at 3.8406 percent interest for various street projects; and $555,000 in temporary notes through Commerce Capital Market at 4.345 percent interest for hangar improvements at Lawrence Municipal Airport.
Hearing delayed
on Brown Bear permit
At the request of the owners, Lawrence city commissioners postponed a public hearing Tuesday night on revoking a sidewalk dining permit for the Brown Bear Brewing Co., 729 Mass.
City officials suspended the sidewalk dining permit last month at the same time they refused to renew the Brown Bear's city liquor license.
Under Lawrence zoning codes, downtown businesses that opened after April 1994 must do at least 55 percent of their business in food sales to keep a city liquor license, and they must do 70 percent of their business in food sales to qualify for a sidewalk dining permit.
After presenting a new business plan and promising to increase their food sales, city commissioners agreed last week to give the brewery a second chance, but its sidewalk dining permit remains under suspension.
Ryan Rodenburg, a co-owner of the Brown Bear, asked commissioners to delay the hearing Tuesday night to give him and his partners more time to come up with a plan for meeting the 70-percent requirement.
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