By Gary J. Groman, a.k.a. The Ole Seagull
The gap in the financing necessary to build a bridge across Lake Taneycomo was narrowed considerably as the result of the actions taken at a joint meeting of the Branson Board of Aldermen and the Taney County Commission on Jan. 17. Announced at the Partners in Progress meeting held in Hollister on Jan. 17, the Taney County Commission, by a vote of two to one, with Commissioners Chuck Pennell and Ron Herschend voting for, and Commissioner Danny Strahan voting against, approved a motion stating that they would provide up to $5.1 million dollars to help finance a new bridge across Lake Taneycomo. No definite source of the funds was contained in the motion.
The motion followed an offer by Branson Mayor Raeanne Presley to ask her board to approve the city of Branson paying up to $1 million in interest on the estimated financing costs of the bridge. Although the Taney County Commission had a quorum present and took official action on the matter, the Branson Board of Aldermen did not have a quorum present and took no official action.
At the start of the meeting, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) District 8 Transportation Project Manager, Chad E. Zickefoose reported that the District 8 MoDOT staff has had conversation with MoDOT’s Innovative Finance Steering Committee (IFSC), MoDOT’s cost sharing committee. As a result of those conversations and the fact that the IFSC is unlikely to approve a cost sharing agreement for more than 50 percent of the project, they believe the best chance to obtain matching funds from the committee is if the project is funded 50 percent locally.
The net effect is that instead of local government having to come up with the $5.1 million that was estimated about a month ago it will have to come up with approximately $6.6 million, $7.6 million if the interest charges are factored in. MoDOT would pay the full amount of rehabilitating the current bridge, about $4.3 million, as a separate project. The new bridge and an expanded roundabout would be a separate project estimated to cost about $14.7 million. If MoDOT’s IFSC approves the 50 percent cost sharing for the bridge, $7.35 million, 50 percent of the $14.7 million total would have to come from local matching sources. The amount of $709,000 in locally procured and controlled funding for the original roundabout project would be subtracted from that amount.
Of the $6.6 million left to be funded locally, the $5.1 million authorized by the county leaves a gap of $1.5 million, $2.5 million if the interest cost is factored in. Although there was some discussion on how the difference could be made up, no viable definite source of funding for the additional $1.5 million was discussed. The $1 million in financing charges that the city of Branson will consider paying is not considered in the $14.7 million estimated cost of the project but is a cost that must be factored in because MoDOT’s 50 percent, $7.35 million, will not be paid until 2013 and will have to be financed in the interim.
Furnished courtesy of the Branson Daily Independent.
