The Littlefield Economic Development Corporation Type B met at noon on Thursday, Jan. 26th at the Ciyt Council Chambers located at 525 Phelps Ave. for the purpose of considering all matters and related incidents to the City of Littlefield.
The meeting was called to order at 12:05 p.m. by Reetha Williams and Lance Parker gave the invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
There was nobody present for Public Comment and the minutes from the August 18, 2022 meeting were approved as read.
Andrew Eisenwine gave the Financial Report, stating, “The sales tax that we’ve been collecting has been really good. We’re hitting record numbers in the amount of sales tax that we’re bringing in. We’ve seen a bit of a cool down, but not anything too concerning. People shopping locally and some new businesses coming in have had a really positive effect on our city and our board, because that is the only money that we make other than a little bit of interest that we make off of our bank account.”
He added, “The interest that we made last year was pretty low, but in the last six months we’ve seen a pretty good increase. This Board was created specifically to help fund the debt that was the prison facility. We finished paying off that debt and sold the facility and LEDC B accomplished its goal in assiting the city in paying that off. We had some really good strategies that the city took to expedite that bond getting paid off and it opened a lot of opportunities and helped our financial health of the city as a whole. What we did after that was to use this board to continue to assist with debt and in that regard, that is where the pool came from. A planned portion of LEDC B assisting with the debt on the pool to help improve quality of life in the City of Littlefield.”
Eisenwine stated, “Every year we pay the City $25,000 to manage their finances. It is cheaper than hiring a director full time to do it. I personally reconcile and keep track of everything and file the paperwork with the state to keep LEDC B in good standing going into the future. Every year we approve a $25,000 payment to the City for handeling LEDC B. Typically, we come in and give $250,000 to assist with debt. That is perfectly fine to do this round, even though we have more money in the account, it is making interest, I think we will leave it in there and let it continue to build.”
He added, “What the City does with that is, we don’t just take it, we actually put it into an account that is specifically associated with paying off the debt of the pool. That account is only used to pay the bid on the pool. When we talk about what we have at the pool; We make two payments per year to pay for the pool, the one in February is a big payment and then in August we have a smaller payment that is just an interest payment; that is pretty typical of municipal debt from what I’ve seen.
Eisenwine stated that the February payment that is coming up is $341,643. The City uses other means to pay the other portion, and LEDC B helps out with that $250,000 that we transfer to the account. The outstanding balance on the pool is $3.985 million with an interest rate of 2.09%.
“We got a really good interest rate and were really smart with how we handeled the debt,” he said. “It doesn’t effect the city’s operating income too much. Hopefully we can build up the quality of living here in Littlefield with the pool.”
The motion to approve the assistance with the Feb. 2023 Bond Payments was made by Keith Logan and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:16 p.m.