Council Introduces Ordinance Refunding $7.5M in Bonds

The Fort Lee Borough Council introduced an ordinance Thursday to refund $7.5 million in general obligation bonds. A public hearing on the ordinance officials say will save the borough hundreds of thousands of dollars is scheduled for Oct. 13.

The governing body also approved three resolutions at its short executive session at Borough Hall Thursday, two of which related to the bond ordinance. The first is to apply to the local Finance Board "with regard to outstanding general obligation bonds," a pre-requisite to refunding bonds. The second resolution amended the capital budget, a requirement, once a budget has already been adopted, if the borough wants to refund the bonds. Both procedural resolutions passed unanimously.

Council President Armand Pohan raised the possibility of refunding bonds at the Mayor and Council’s regular meeting Sept. 15, saying that it could save the borough about $250,000. For next year's budget alone, the savings would be $100,000.

Fort Lee currently has a net debt of $68.2 million, according to the borough's annual debt statement.

Of that, between $6 million and $7 million could be addressed through refunding bonds, Pohan told Patch after last week's regular meeting.

"We want to move on this," Pohan said at the time. "We want to move on this expeditiously."

The council also approved a resolution at Thursday's executive session awarding a $353,597, three-year janitorial and maintenance services bid to Pritchard Industries, Inc. of New York for the Fort Lee Police Department facility and the Jack Alter Fort Lee Community Center.

The Fort Lee Mayor and Council discussed the agenda item, "Affordable Housing Obligations – 2103 Hudson Terrace (V&R Developers)," during the closed session portion of the executive session.

To download the complete agenda for Thursday’s brief executive session, click here, or visit the borough’s website.