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Airport bond issue authorized
The Westmoreland County Airport Authority voted this week to approve a resolution to permit PNC Bank to solicit orders from investors for a $3 million bond issue to help finance a variety of projects.
The funds will provide local share contributions to roughly $17 million in planned improvements at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity and Rostraver Airport in Rostraver.
The funding will be used to match $1 million in state capital improvement funding for a $5 million public-private partnership project with L.J. Aviation to relocate existing general aviation T-hangars in preparation for the firm's expansion of its corporate campus at Arnold Palmer Regional.
It also will match about $12 million from the Federal Aviation Administration and state Department of Transportation Bureau of Aviation grant programs for several other projects slated for completion by 2013 at both airports.
The authority will receive the money in a lump sum when the official bond closing occurs Dec. 2, said Michael Zubasic, managing director of PNC 's public financing division.
"We were pleased with the rates they (the authority) received. They came in lower than expected and they fall in line with the authority's (2009) budget projections," Zubasic said.
The money will be deposited in the authority's construction fund, said authority spokesman Dwayne Pickels.
County commissioners recently approved a resolution to repay the bond over 20 years at a 4.8 percent interest rate that adds an average of roughly $150,000 to the authority's annual debt service based on market conditions as of Oct. 29, Pickels said.
The authority's bond counsel, Thomas S. Lynch of Pittsburgh-based Lynch and Lynch Attorneys At Law, will file closing documents with the state in the coming weeks.
While researching the venture, the authority's finance committee learned that municipal bonds currently rank among the safest investments on the market next to treasury bills, Pickels said.
"For $3 million over 20 years, we'll be getting $20 million worth of projects done, so it really is a worthwhile endeavor," Pickels said.
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