The Roanoke Times

The fall 2009 holiday season may be something special for Roanoke County residents.

If all goes as planned, sometime around Thanksgiving an $18 million library off Merriman Road in South County will welcome not only readers but also Wi-Fi users, neighborhood organizations, nature lovers and coffee drinkers.

Across the county where Interstates 81 and 581 join, families will likely be able to play in a heated, indoor water park that will be the focal point of a new $30 million recreation center.

Those two facilities will wrap up a series of seven major capital-improvement projects the county has scheduled to be completed in 2009.

Their total cost is just more than $74 million.

And like many of that season's Christmas shoppers, county residents will be paying for those presents to themselves for some years to come -- although county staffers say a better analogy would be to look at the investment like that of a new homeowner's.

The county will be borrowing about 80 percent of the cost of the projects with a planned $58.3 million bond sale next spring. The bonds will be repaid over 30 years, although if history is a guide it's likely those will be refinanced at some point in the future for lower rates or a shorter term.

They will be so-called revenue bonds that, unlike general-obligation bonds, use the facilities they finance as collateral, so no voter referendum is required, explained Diane Hyatt, the county's chief financial officer.

The exact date for the bond sale hasn't been set -- Hyatt is waiting for final figures on the costs of a few projects so the county won't borrow any more than it needs.

Hyatt has budgeted the payback as if the bonds will sell for 5.5 percent interest. At that rate, debt payments on the new bonds would total about $4.3 million per year.

Some of that is already being set aside in the county budget structure, she said, and the departments that benefit from the new facilities will be expected to contribute a small portion of their operating budgets.

Another part of the funding will come from payments by the Western Virginia Water Authority for services provided by the new county garage and in savings the garage sees by not having to outsource work.

The county also set new ambulance fees this year that are expected to bring in as much as $300,000 a year in new revenue that will go toward repaying the debt.

In addition, the county is "redirecting money that formerly went to Explore Park," Hyatt said, which amounted to $500,000 a year for several years.

Florida-based entrepreneur Larry Vander Maten has until mid-2008 to state his intentions about exercising an option to lease that park and convert it to an "overnight family vacation destination." No matter what he does, the county will no longer be contributing to the park's operating expenses, the county's supervisors decided earlier.

After the bond sale, the county's annual debt payment, which includes school debts, initially will rise by about a third from $15 million to $20 million. The total county indebtedness will rise from $108 million to about $173 million.

Payments, Hyatt said, will remain "well within" the county's self-imposed debt limits, which amount to no more than 3 percent of the county's assessed real estate values, nor more than $2,500 per resident, nor more than 10 percent of the general government budget.

Also, she said, the new projects won't take money away from any school projects because the county and school system have separate capital-improvement accounts.

Still, some taxpayers and one supervisor are concerned that the county is taking on too much debt.

Windsor Hills Supervisor Joe McNamara cast the only vote against the new recreation center, citing concerns about stretching out financing for 30 years when the county has been working to cut down borrowing and hold down terms to 20 years.

"My goal ... is to have the county paying cash for projects in the next 10 to 15 years. Instead, we're going the opposite way," he said Friday.

Civic league organizer and Bent Mountain resident Ed Elswick said many taxpayers "wonder why we have to spend so much money all at one time when we know that has a huge effect on tax rates."

Some object particularly to the rec center, he said, which they believe should be a private venture, and to all the "bells and whistles" included in the new library plans.

He concedes that most of the opposition he has heard comes from residents of the county's outlying rural areas, and that many urban residents are happy with the projects.

"I think we're mortgaging our future," Elswick said. "Even if there's a recession, we'll still be stuck with that liability and no opportunity to reduce tax rates."

Most of the supervisors and the county administration, however, believe that locking in construction costs at today's prices will more than compensate for the inflationary increases they expect over the next few years.

Hyatt also points out that the debt will begin decreasing with the first year's payment, and both the county's official policy and bond-rating agencies' standards indicate the county's debt will remain at a healthy ratio.

Roanoke County bond issues traditionally "get grabbed up right away," she said.

And staff members and most supervisors say they believe the projects are necessary and will be embraced by county residents.

The county has been good at keeping up with utilities and infrastructure, Hyatt said, but unlike many even smaller localities, it hasn't spent any significant amounts on cultural amenities such as libraries and recreation centers in 20 years.

"We're anticipating getting a really good response when they open," Hyatt said. "People just don't know what they don't have."