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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06.12.20 Newsletter DATE: June 12, 2020 TO: Honorable Mayor and Common Council FROM: Mark Rohloff, City Manager SUBJECT: Weekly Newsletter 1. GO TRANSIT LOOKS AT USE OF CARES FUNDS: GO Transit was notified we will be receiving CARES Act Supplemental Public Transportation funding. The CARES Act was signed into law on March 27th providing $2 trillion in support for a variety of industries affected by COVID-19, including the transit industry. Recognizing that transit providers have seen a drastic decrease in ridership and revenue as a result of social distancing, while incurring unplanned costs for health and safety, the CARES Act is distributing $25 billion nationally to support the transit industry response to COVID-19. Wisconsin transit agencies will receive funds under this act. As is the case with our federal transit operating funds, CARES Act funding for small urban transit systems like GO Transit is allocated by WisDOT. WisDOT notified GO Transit that we will be receiving $4,553,754. FTA is requiring recipients to apply for CARES Act funds as soon as possible and asks that they be committed/spent expeditiously. Although the priority for the funding is operational expenses, FTA will generally consider all transit expenses normally eligible under regular transit operating and capital programs that are incurred on or after January 20, 2020 to be in response to economic or other conditions caused by COVID-19 and thus eligible under the CARES Act. FTA and WisDOT are being flexible with transit uses of these funds. These funds will allow GO Transit to cover many of our additional costs as well as fund some overdue capital projects. We have worked with FTA and WisDOT on our plans for these funds and will be presenting staff’s recommended plan to the Transit Advisory Board at the June 17th meeting. The agenda for that meeting and a spreadsheet outlining these recommendations is attached. The recommendations for these funds are also part of the Capital Improvement Plan budgeting process for GO Transit. If you have any questions about this, please contact Transportation Director, Jim Collins. 2. CITY TAKES ADVANTAGE OF INTEREST RATE DROP: Bids were taken on June 9, 2020 and approved at the Council meeting on the two G.O. issues, and the stormwater revenue bonds. The City benefitted from the recent drop in interest rates with all three issues coming in with yields well below pre-sale estimates. Collectively, the principal and interest to be paid over the term of the three issues is $1M+ less than the earlier estimates. The 2020A Bonds included refinancing of the 2011C Bonds. This refinancing ended up saving the City about City Manager • Mark A. Rohloff City Hall, 215 Church Avenue P.O. Box 1130 Oshkosh, WI 54903-1130 920.236.5002 http://www.ci.oshkosh.wi.us $850,000 which exceeded the $615,000 savings estimate. Attached are detailed Sale Day Reports for each of the three issues. I have also attached the graph that has traced bond interest rates over the previous 5 years. Our debt issue was timed to coincide with the lowest rates in recent history. Please contact Russ Van Gompel, Finance Director if you have question with regard to the sale reports. 3. COVID-19 RESOURCE LINKS AND INFORMATION: o Citizen Covid-19 Information Site: https://www.ci.oshkosh.wi.us/covid19.aspx o Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/ o Wisconsin Department of Health Services: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/ o Winnebago County Public Health Department: https://www.co.winnebago.wi.us/health/divisions-program- areas/communicable-disease/covid-19-coronavirus/wchd-covid-19-situation 4. MEETING MINUTES FOR BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS: All meeting minutes are uploaded to the website upon approval. Please follow the link below for the most updated information & meeting minutes: https://onboard.ci.oshkosh.wi.us/. 5. UPCOMING MEETINGS: At 11:00 AM on Monday, Parks Director Maurer and I will be meeting with Mayor Palmeri to discuss environmental concerns that have been expressed over the Lakeshore Park development. On Tuesday at 4:30 PM I will be meeting with Deputy Mayor Krause to discuss my mid-year review. At 9:30 AM on Thursday, I will be on WHBY radio to be interviewed on their “Fresh Take” program. For the remainder of the week, I will be wrapping up the annual CIP process and meeting with departmental staff regarding their proposed 2021-25 CIP projects. If you have any questions about my schedule, please contact me.