City of Delafield - The Common Council unanimously approved Monday night the sale of $8.9 million in bonds most of which will pay for the construction of the first phase of a new downtown local government complex.

City Financial Advisor Philip Cosson of Ehlers said interest costs on the loan will be about $275,000 less than anticipated.

He emphasized that the reduced interest costs do not represent a revenue windfall for the city but rather a reduction of the amount of taxes expected to be required to pay off the loan over 20 years.

Cosson said interest payments will be lower than anticipated because of the size of the bond issuance, fluxuations within the bond market, and the city's strong bond rating; all of which attracted national as well as regional financial insititutions bidding for the bonds.

FTN Financial Capital Markets of Memphis Tennessee offered the lowest bid package with interest rates at about 4.1 percent and net interest cost of $4,926,362.

Moody's Investors Service assigned the city as Aa3 bond rating which it said "reflects the city's continued healty financial performance, affluent and growing tax base favorable located between Milwaukee and Madison, and a manageable debt profile despite additional borrowing."

The city will use $7.2 million of the money to construct next year a new public safety building for police and fire departments and remodel the Department of Public Works Garage on West Main Street.

Another $5.2 will borrowed in late 2009 to build a new city hall and library civic center at the existing City Hall site on Genesee Street. The $12.4 million in capital projects was approved by voters earlier this year.

The remaining $1.7million will be used on various capital improvement projects such as the annual street resurfacing program and the purchase of heavy equipment.

The city's total outstanding general obligation debt is $18.6 million, according to Moody's.

City of Delafield - One of the country's largest construction firms which is presently building Aurora Hospital in Oconomowoc and recently completed building a museum for Harley Davidson has been recommended as the construction manager for building a $12.4 million city government complex.

A citizens committee appointed to recommend architectual and construction management firms to the Common Council has selected Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis, Minnesota as the construction management firm and Brey Associates Architects Inc., of Sheboygan, as the architects and engineers for the project.

Common Council approval of the recommendations is expected Monday night.

Mortenson and Bray will serve as key members on a construction team that will also include the city's contractual engineering and planning firm of Yaggy Colby Associates and probably appointed city officials and citizens.

Mayor Ed McAleer said Wednesday night that he has not decided whether he will appoint a new group of citizens to serve as a building committee, ask the members of the selection committee serve as a building committee, or possibly turn oversight of the project over to the city's Public Works Committee.

The project has been driven by citizen committees. The so-called Plan B Committee developed the concepts for $12.4 million in new facilities for police, fire, library, public works departments and a new city hall that were approved in a February referendum after a $20 million plan was rejected last year by voters.

Another committee of citizens was selected to recruit architectual and construction management firms for the project and review proposals submitted by the firms.

Both committees were appointed by former Mayor Phil Schuman and approved by the Common Council.

Mortensen's proposed fees are about $473,000. Bray's proposed service costs are about $456,000 and Yaggy Colby will receive about $100,000 for their services.

The three contracts total about $1.1 million, which is the amount the Plan B Committee had budgeted for professional services on the project, according to Kean Kemnitz, former Plan B Committee Chairman and a member of the selection committee.

Committee member and Alderman Jeff Krickhahn said that Bray and Mortenson were recommended by the committee because they were the firms that made the best presentations and submitted the lowest proposed service fees.

The committee conducted public interviews of the six firms that were selected as finalists for the architectual and construction management contracts and then selected the recommended firms during a 30 minute closed session Wednesday night.

Both firms indicated that they anticipated construction beginning in early 2009 and  being completed in 2010.

The project includes remodeling the Department of Public Works Building and construction of a public safety building for police and fire departments on the DPW land on Main Street near the Bark River, west of downtown.

 In addition,  a new civic center that will include a city hall and library will be built on  the existing City Hall site on Genesee Street in the downtown business district.