Sewer extension refinancing saves $300,000 in interest

SOUTH POINT — The village of South Point has canceled plans to build a spray park.

At Thursday night’s meeting of council, Mayor Jeff Gaskin said the cost was too high.

“We can’t afford to build a spray park,” Gaskin said. “It looks like the parts $50,000, which means we would have to come up with another $50,000 to do it.”

Gaskin said he would be looking into whether the $38,000 grant South Point had received could be used for other improvements to the village’s park.

“We have some aging equipment in the park,” he said, and noted that several people had requested handicapped accessible additions to the playground, such as a swing, which would accommodate a wheelchair.

In order to use the grant, construction would have to be done in 2017. He presented the council with catalogs of options to consider for equipment.

“We need to move on this next month, or we lose that money by the end of the year,” Gaskin said.

The council also voted to refinance the Solida Road sewer extension for $720,000.

“15 years ago, we took out a 40-year note for approximately $914,000 to finance it,” Gaskin said. “Our interest rate was 4.5 percent for 40 years.”

Gaskin said the village is refinancing at 2.25 percent through the Lawrence County Neighborhood and Investment Program and it will be paid off five years early.

“This will save us $300,000 in interest,” he said. “That’s quite a coup.”

The mayor and council also heard from Bill Dingus of the Lawrence County Economic Development Corporation, who gave an update on progress at The Point Industrial Park.

Dingus said things were “going smoothly” at the industrial park, with new companies taking up residence.

He said The Point currently has more than 7000 people working either directly at the location or in association with it and that workers there earn an average wage of $40,000.

“These are family kind of wages that people can live on,” he said.

Dingus presented the council members with a timeline of projects at The Point and discussed plans for a wellness center there, which would promote healthy lifestyles for workers.

Dingus said the facility, which would be built in modules, would feature three pools — a leisure pool, a competitive swimming pool and a therapeutic pool, which he said would also be open to South Point schools, starting in the third grade for swimming lessons and could be a facility for a competitive swim team.

Dingus asked the council to consider partnering with The Point on the facility, which would could be made available to village workers.

He also suggested for South Point to consider coming up with a comprehensive plan for leisure trails to link the community.

Dingus also spoke of the new Tri-State STEM+M Academy, set to open in the fall as a public school at The Point.

He said the school would prepare students for careers in a high-demand field, and he addressed concerns of public school districts about the school.

“Any time you do something, it’s controversial,” he said. “When we first opened the vocational school, a lot of the local districts thought it would kill them.”

He said he envisioned the school could be a draw for the county, with people moving to the county to be near it.

Dingus also focused on the partnership between the village and The Point, noting the industrial park has contributed to water and sewer projects, road repairs and work on the village’s water tanks.

“We’re always trying to be good neighbors,” he said.

Also at the meeting, the council voted unanimously to create a system of bereavement leave for village workers, up to three days for the death of an immediate family member. Gaskin said the previous system required workers to take sick leave for bereavement.