By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

NEOSHO, Mo. — Newton County likely will use at least some of the low-interest bonds available through the federal stimulus program, but it will review requests from local communities that want to participate in that program, county officials said Thursday.

Newton County can issue up to about $1.47 million in Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds, a program in which local governments issue their own bonds for public projects and are reimbursed by the federal government for 45 percent of the interest that they pay. Whatever allotment is not used by the county could be used by local communities within Newton County, although they, too, would have to issue their own bonds for their projects.

“I can’t see any circumstance in which we will not use them,” Presiding Commissioner Jerry Carter said Thursday.

The county and its bonding company are conducting a “risk assessment” for the bonds, Carter said, noting that the Recovery Zone bonds only reduce the interest the county would pay. The county still would have to pay back the bond principal, and the ultimate cost to the county would partly depend on what kind of interest rates it secured for those bonds.

“It’s still money you’ve got to pay back and pay interest on,” said Jerry Black, 1st District commissioner.

The city of Neosho this week sent the county a letter asking to use more than $1 million of the county’s allocation to complete mold cleanup and exterior renovations at City Hall, to furnish its new public works building, and to construct a roundabout at McCord Street and Highway 60.

Carter said the county also has received general inquiries about the program from Seneca, Diamond and Granby.

Gary Roark, mayor of Seneca, said one potential use for the bonds in his community would be to help finance construction of a new mechanical sewage-treatment plant.

Seneca voters in November approved a plan allowing the city to take on up to $4.2 million in debt for construction of the plant. Proceeds from the bonds the city would issue for the work are to be combined with a $2 million state grant to finance the work.

Roark said the bonds could be used to help lessen the cost to the city for the project. Seneca also has some street repair work that could be financed with the bonds.

Carter said the county has a number of “pressing needs” that can be addressed.

Although the county has not drawn up a formal list of projects that it would finance with the bonds, it has a number of potential projects that could use the money, including about $25 million in road and bridge work, a $6 million jail expansion, and about $1 million to retrofit the emergency operations center for current needs and for the planned relocation of 911 dispatching services from the courthouse to the center.

Still, Carter said the county this month would be reviewing Neosho’s request and any other requests by other communities. The county must indicate whether it plans to issue any Recovery Zone bonds, along with the amount, by Sept. 1.