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Arnolds Park To Issue Not To Exceed $15 M In G.O. Bonds To Construct New City Complex

January 29, 2025 Steve Schwaller

(Arnolds Park)– Meeting in special session Tuesday evening, the Arnolds Park City Council adopted a resolution to issue not to exceed $15 million in general obligation bonds to build a new complex housing city offices, library, police department and fire station. The action followed a public hearing. A resort owner expressed some concern over the city taking on the debt, requesting elected officials be good stewards of taxpayer money. City officials say they remain committed to keeping the property tax levy stable, siting increasing property values, new construction and continued growth in hotel-motel tax revenues. City Clerk Linda Nase explains how the borrowing will be paid back…

“We are able to use money out of our TIF district, our TIF two district, and so that should cover the majority, if not all, of the bond payment to pay back. We’re hoping to use a portion of the Hotel-Motel Tax money to pay the library portion of the bond payment.”

The council also hired a Construction Manager at Risk to help oversee the project which will be constructed at the current city hall location…

“We have worked with an architect, CMBA out of Spencer to design the layout of the building and now that the construction manager has been hired or selected we will work with our architect as well as them to make some final plans on the interior design as well as work on the exterior and the layout of the building.”

Nase says the timeframe for the project depends on a couple of things…

“We’re hoping to break ground later this summer or early fall and then depending on whether we do a one phase or a two phase project it could extend it up to a 24 to 27 month project. If we do a single phase we could be done in about 14 or 15 months.”

City officials say they’ve simply outgrown the current facility and that it wasn’t feasible to renovate it.

The council also went into a closed session Tuesday evening to discuss a possible real estate transaction.