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Managing editor

Anoka County has sold three bond issues at historic low interest rates.

The board has awarded the sale of $6.85 million in general obligation bonds, $770,000 in general obligation capital notes and refunded $1.43 million in 2002 general obligation recreational facility bonds.

The bonds and notes were priced “in an aggressive manner” by the county’s bond underwriter, Oppenheimer & Co., Nov. 9, according to Brenda Krueger, Springsted Inc., the board’s financial consultant.

They came back to the county board Finance and Capital Improvements Committee and then the county board itself for the sale award Nov. 10.

“The bond sales were very successful,” said Cevin Petersen, county division manager for finance and central services. “We received very low interest rates on all of them.”

The true interest rate on the five-year capital notes was 1.7157 percent.

“This was excellent,” Krueger said. “It was even better than expected.”

The true interest rate of 3.279 percent on the 15-year $6.85 million in general obligation bonds was about what was anticipated, according to Krueger.

So was the 3.25 percent true interest rate on the refunding of the 2002 bonds, which originally totaled $2.2 million and were used to finance expansion of the Bunker Beach Water Park in Bunker Hills Regional Park.

But the new interest rate over the 14 years of the refunded bonds met the 3 percent savings requirement of state law, according to Petersen.

The original interest rate was 4.6 percent, Petersen said.

The value benefit of the bond refunding is $45,757 and the annual cash flow savings to the water park is $4,623, Krueger said.

For the bond sales, the county’s existing AAA bond rating was affirmed by Standard and Poor’s as was its Aa2 from Moody’s, she said.

“The ratings were stellar,” Krueger said. “No major issues were raised by the bond rating agencies.”

The county board should be proud of the pricing of the bonds, according to Scott McLinden of Oppenheimer.

“It demonstrates the strength and solid reputation the county has in the national market,” he said.

The market is mixed right now and only bonds from those government agencies in a very strong financial position thanks to good financial practices and low debt burden, like Anoka County, are attractive to investors, according to McLinden.

The bulk of the $6.85 million in capital improvement bonds will go to the interchange reconstruction project at Main Street and I-35E, for which the county received federal stimulus dollars and other federal funds to help pay a majority of the estimated overall cost of $22 million.

The bond issue includes $2 million to cover a portion of the county’s $3.017 million share of the project cost, according to Petersen.

The project is currently out for bids and the county wants to wait to see how it fares in the current favorable bidding climate before deciding how to pay for the balance of its share, Petersen said.

Another $4,241,833 included in the bond issue is to cover the city of Lino Lakes’ share of the interchange project cost.

Under a joint powers agreement with Lino Lakes, the county has agreed to bond for the city’s project funding commitment because it can get a lower interest rate than the city thanks to its superior bond rating, but the city will pay back the county’s bond debt, Petersen said.

The third component of  the bond issue is $462,000 for county library system repair and rehabilitation projects - window replacements, foundation and roof repairs, Petersen said.

Proceeds from the capital notes will be split between the library system for computer network upgrades (both hardware and software) totaling $380,000 and the parks department for equipment purchases (dump trucks and a logging truck) in the amount of $364,058.

Peter Bodley is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it