Walker County paid off its biggest debt at last week's commission meeting.
The $10.7 million payment authorized by the county commission last week is paying off bonds issued in 2019, according to panel Chair Shannon Whitfield. That debt will be settled 10 years early, which will save the county up to $2 million in interest, he said at the meeting.
"I'd like to thank the board for their support with the finances of the county and working toward the common goal of getting our county 100% debt free," Whitfield said in a news release. "I also appreciate the taxpayers, who carried this burden. We will continue working toward getting this county completely out of debt by the end of this year."
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The two resolutions inking the deal passed without a dissenting vote. Robert Stultz, District 4 commissioner, was absent.
"Well done," Brian Hart, District 3 commissioner, said after Whitfield explained the deal. "I'm very pleased with this."
In Walker County, District 3 covers a southeast portion of the county that includes LaFayette, and District 4 is a western portion of the county that includes Chattanooga Valley and the Kensington community.
The refinanced 2019 bonds were first issued in 2015 when sole Commissioner Bebe Haskell was in office before the current five-member board was formed, Whitfield said. A total of $17.5 million in bonds was first issued to build out the county's industrial park in LaFayette, an amount confirmed by county spokesperson Joe Legge.
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The 2015 bonds -- considered junk bonds because of the poor financial rating of the county -- were refinanced in 2019 at about half the interest rate of the original bonds, dropping the rate to 2.64% from 5.2%.
The refinancing also saved the county nearly $4 million in interest and reduced the life of the bond by five years, according to the news release.
"And the most exciting thing is we got all of our stuff back," Whitfield said of the 2019 refinancing.
The county had to put up several properties as collateral: Mountain Cove Farms, two industrial parks, the Civic Center and Agricultural Center.
Legge said the Walker County Business Park in LaFayette has one tenant, Audia Plastics. There are about 550 acres in the business park and about 530 of that is available for purchase. About 50 acres of the more than 90-acre Northwest Georgia Business & Industrial Park in Rock Spring are available too, he said.
Whitfield said that after settling the 2019 bond, Walker County's total debt will be reduced to about $19 million, with the largest share of that being $5.5 million for closing the county's landfill and post-closure costs.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.