MT. VERNON, IL — The Mt. Vernon City Council had their first reading of an ordinance authorizing the issuance of general obligation improvement and refunding bonds during Monday night’s meeting.

Councilman Donte Moore says the bonds could be refinanced at a fixed rate possibly less than 2%, depending on the markets at the time of the sale.

The refinanced bonds could save taxpayers close to $3.3 million dollars. With that savings, new bonds would only cost city taxpayers about $950-thousand over the life of the 20-year bonds.

This money would fast-track multiple projects in the city that are already engineered and waiting for funding. City Manager Mary Ellen Bechtel.

Mayor John Lewis says by doing this, the city can take advantage of record low interest rates to add $12.4 million in infrastructure improvements.

After a presentation by Mt. Vernon Finance Director Steven Tate as well as King’s Financial, who the city is working with on the selling of these bonds, the council suspended the rules to vote and pass the bond ordinance.