Shawnee County moves toward issuing $20M in bonds for corrections, parks work

Shawnee County commissioners stated their intent Thursday to issue $20 million in bonds to finance facility and site improvements for the county's corrections and parks and recreation departments.

Commissioners Aaron Mays, Kevin Cook and Bill Riphahn voted 3-0 to make that move during a meeting of the Shawnee County Public Building Commission, for which they are the three members.

Thursday's public building commission meeting followed the commission’s regular meeting, where Mays, Cook and Riphahn had voted 3-0 to ask the public building commission — consisting of themselves — to state its intent to issue the bonds.

The moves came quickly, with a total of 14 minutes elapsing between the start of Thursday's commission meeting and the end of the public building commission meeting that followed.

How did the county create the arrangement used Thursday?

The county commission in November 2017 created the public building commission and empowered it to approve the issuance of revenue bonds to help the county cut costs to finance facilities improvements, according to a document in the agenda packet for Thursday's meeting.

Interest rates have historically been lower for revenue bonds than for other types of financing, that document said.

Revenue bonding is "the best vehicle" for financing the improvements discussed Thursday, county bond counsel Bob Perry told commissioners.

Commissioners last put the arrangement involved to use in March 2018 when they issued $32 million in revenue bonds to help finance improvements the county subsequently made at Stormont Vail Events Center.

Those bonds were purchased by investors and are being paid off using revenue the county receives from a countywide, half-cent sales tax.

Can Thursday's vote be undone?

Commissioners heard no public comments Thursday regarding the proposed bond issuance.

It wasn't necessary for commissioners to accept such comments, Perry said, adding that Kansas law enables any opponents to arrange for a public vote regarding Thursday's building commission move by getting signatures on a petition asking for such an election and signed by 5% of the county's registered voters.

The county has about 117,000 registered voters, said county election commissioner Andrew Howell.

That would mean about 5,850 petition signatures would be necessary to force a ballot question election.

More:County corrections steps up efforts to deal with mental illness

What are the bonds to finance in the corrections department?

The proposed funding earmarked for the county corrections department would go toward building a mental health housing unit on top of the existing medical unit on the south side of the Shawnee County Jail, 501 S.E. 8th, said Maj. Tim Phelps, of the corrections department.

Phelps hopes to "get the design and build going next year" on that project, he told The Capital-Journal.

"Since the management of mentally ill inmates is a growing reality in detention centers, we are wanting to have a location where we can do a more successful job in housing and programming with the most severely mentally ill within the detention environment," Phelps said. "This proposed plan will allow us better space to do this work, and still remain within the structural confines of the adult detention center."

More:Two renovated baseball fields at Dornwood Park dedicated

What are the bonds to finance in the parks and recreation department?

Detailed plans have not yet been developed for the use of the proposed bond funding in the parks and recreation department, The Capital-Journal was told Thursday by Mike McLaughlin, communications and public information supervisor for that department.

He said that department generally intends to spend the money to:

• Finance “a scaled-down version of Phase 1” of a project to create a planned Family Park in southwest Topeka. ”While plans aren’t definite it may include a playground, shelter and pickleball courts to start,” McLaughlin said.

• Make continued progress on the baseball and softball complex at Dornwood Park, 2815 S.E. 25th.

•  Make improvements at Oakland-Billard Park, 801 N.E. Poplar.

•  And build a Grange Hall at Old Prairie Town at Ward-Meade Historic Site and Botanical Gardens, 124 N.W. Fillmore.

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at (785) 213-5934 or threnchir@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Shawnee County to issue $20M in bonds for corrections, parks work