The Board of Directors of the Dent County Fire Protection District at a regular meeting on May 14 approved the sale of $3,500,000 General Obligation Bond Issue to its Municipal Bond Underwriter, L.J. Hart & Company of St. Louis. The bonds were finalized on June 23.
"We appreciate the strong vote of confidence we received from local patrons at the election and want to lock in interest rates that are still favorable in the current rate environment," stated Mike Godi, president of the board of directors.
These General Obligation Bonds were approved by about 63% of the voters at the April 8 election, for the purpose of providing funds for acquiring new fire trucks and other firefighting and medical equipment for the first responders of the district.
The bond marketing process provided the first opportunity to invest to local financial institutions and, according to Tom Pisarkiewicz, president of L.J. Hart & Company, the Bank of Salem purchased $120,000, Progressive Ozark Bank acquired $330,000, Town and Country Bank bought $570,000, and $275,000 was made available through Edward Jones. The local support was helpful to the success of the financing.
“It is nice that our marketing procedures facilitated this local involvement while still receiving attractive interest rates,” commented Godi.
The board of directors selected the negotiated sale of the bonds in order to capture current market conditions, to be certain that local banks received an opportunity to purchase the bonds, and because the proposed interest rates were fair based upon current conditions in the municipal bond market.
The information shared by L. J. Hart & Company indicated that the bonds are scheduled to mature on March 1, 2028, through March 1, 2045, at a 5.00% interest rate with reoffered yields ranging from 3.35% to 5.05%, which produces additional funds in the amount of $92,254.60. The interest income from the bonds is exempt from federal and state of Missouri income taxes, and the bonds were available in $5,000 denominations.
The bonds do contain optional redemption (call) provisions on March 1, 2030, at no penalty that will facilitate the reduction of future interest expense in the event of prepayment or a future refunding to lower rates if market conditions make it economically feasible. The financing proceeds became available to the district on July 17, 2025, and will be reinvested by the district to earn additional interest for use in the completion of the projects.
