Leadwood has bond issue on ballot

Leadwood residents will decide Nov. 7 whether to allow the city to borrow $300,000 in general obligation bonds to repair and improve city streets. A four-sevenths vote is required for passage of the bond issue.

Passage will not raise taxes. In fact, the tax rate for debt service for these bonds would be lower than the current tax levy rate of $.8356 per $100 assessed valuation for the old bonds, City Clerk Tanya Brewster said.

“We are retiring a $300,000 bond from 1997,” Brewster explained. “If the bond passes, the debt service rate starting next August will be $.678 per $100 assessed valuation.”

At that debt service rate, the new bond could be retired in 10 years, she added.

City residents will still pay the general revenue tax of .833 cents per $100 assessed valuation, regardless of the passage or failure of the Nov. 7 bond issue, she added.

The bond would cover paving of about 4 miles of streets: Caviness, Warner and North from the city limits to Route M; Mill; Station from Church Street to the end; East Street from Birch to Station; Hickory from Ninth Street to Pine, City Park, Bank from Main Street to just pass the school; Main from before the intersection with Pine and for 2,300 feet; South Street from Mill to the Dead End; and Fifth Street from Walnut to Elm.

Lead Belt Materials, Inc., gave the city an estimate of $231,930.70 for the project, which includes 20-foot-wide street paving. The depth of the asphalt would be at least two inches and could be more depending on the amount of repair needed on each street.

Some streets would require removal of the old asphalt. Workers would then lay crushed stone to a depth of 8 inches, cover it with two inches of concrete and there layers of asphalt.

The project would begin next spring when the weather permits.