Knox to issue $39 million in bonds

The county on Friday will issue almost $40 million in bonds, which will fund work for number of projects tied to schools, roads and government buildings that officials hope to complete during the next couple of years.

Officials initially thought about issuing $17 million last year, and $22 million this year, but by holding off and issuing everything at once, the county will save roughly $250,000, according to Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett.

(The savings is essentially issuance fees, kind of like closing costs on a house. He said the savings will go back into the general fund.)

You may ask: "Well, Tim you always talk about paying off the debt, but aren’t you adding to it? Not really. The mayor says if the county continues to pay off more and issue less coin, then it still saves money.  

You can click right smack here for the 2013 capital improvement projects officials want to do and right smack here for this year’s stuff.

And, here’s a snapshot of some stuff just in case you’re lazy:

• Parkside Drive improvements: $6 million
• The Juvenile Court Building expansion: $3 million
• Karns Senior Center $ 1 million
• Karns Connector $4 million
• City County Building improvements: $500K
• AJ Building improvements: $475K
• School security: $3.9 million
• Safety Center:  $1million

In addition, about $15.8 million in bonds will help the school system for a number of projects including overall physical plant upgrades and work on Belle Morris Elementary, Chilhowee Intermediate and Gresham Middle (just to name a few of the schools)