By Ashley Stewart

Owatonna People’s Press

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — The Blooming Prairie City Council unanimously voted Monday to spend $145,000 to pay off an outstanding general obligation bond for a streets project two years early.

The action came after Blooming Prairie City Administrator Mike Jones told the council the $690,000 bond, which was refinanced in 2009, had its first call date on Feb. 1.

“I didn’t feel that we had the funds or the excess funds to call at that time, but since we’ve made the last payment…we’ve gotten it to a point where we can call this bond in August,” he said.

Jones said the bond will be paid off using about $41,000 on-hand cash, $23,500 from the sewer fund and a total of about $83,000 from the 2016 and 2017 levies.

“All you have to do is transfer $58,000 over from the general fund to the debt service until the second half of the 2016 tax levy comes in and then we can transfer that back to the general fund,” he said.

By calling the bond early, the interest savings is $4,720.

“Saving 4,700 bucks is savings 4,700 bucks, saving 20 bucks is saving 20 bucks,” said Mayor H. Peterson. “It’s never a bad idea to save money.”

The 15-year bond was first issued at $860,000 in 2002 for street projects, Jones said, but was refinanced in 2009 for a lower interest rate.

Jones said in addition to calling the bonds early, the city will also be paying off the industrial park in 2016.