By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
OXFORD — A bond worth $372,944 is coming Oxford’s way for upgrades and maintenance to the sanitary sewer system.
The Oxford Village Council voted 6-0 to pay for the bond in installments during a meeting on June 11. Council President Kelsey Cooke was absent.
The bond is the first of several the Oakland County Water Resource Commission will issue from 2025 to 2029, according to village documents. The $372,944 was calculated based on Oxford’s share of the system, which is 0.572%. The total amount of the bond for all communities involved is $65.2 million.
Village documents show Oxford’s share of the first bond will begin with “small” payments on April 1, of 2025, 2026 and 2027. Payments will then increase to typical amounts for the remaining 20 years. Oxford’s total payments for the bond are estimated to be $486,238 – roughly $113,000 in interest costs.
The village has prepaid bonds in the past to avoid interest costs, but village Manager Joe Madore recommended the village pay in installments due to this bond’s “minor amount of interest rate-wise.”
In a memorandum to council, Madore wrote that the rate of return on the village’s funds were low, and that currently the bond rate is “only 2.5%” and the village is earning around 4.5% or more on their funds.
Madore said during the meeting there could be multiple bonds coming over the next two or three years that are “more than the 4.5% [to] 5% range.”
“So, I think it’d be better for us to take advantage of this low interest one and pay it as we go, and then save our funds to pay off the higher interest one that we expect in 24 to 36 months,” Madore said.
Payments for the bond for each fiscal year ending June 30 are listed in village documents:
The interest only installment for 2025 is $506. The interest only installment for 2026 is $2,927. The interest only installment for 2027 is $5,528.
The first payment installment scheduled for 2028 is $22,716, the second for 2029 is $23,917, the third in 2030 is $23,915, the fourth in 2031 is $23,932, the fifth in 2032 is $23,910, the sixth in 2033 is $23,937, the seventh in 2034 is $23,924, the eighth in 2035 is $23,930, the ninth in 2036 is $23,925 and payment 10 in 2037 is $23,937.
Payment installments 11 through 20 ending in 2047 are: $23,910, $23,930, $23,937, $23,932, $23,915, $23,914, $23,929, $23,930, $23,918 and $23,921.