Bond Commission approves Marksville, Simmesport bond sales

    The City of Marksville, tired of “jumping through hoops” to secure a $200,000 loan from the USDA, decided to borrow the $200,000 from a local lender and sell bonds to provide the additional money to renovate the former Mary Bethune High School gymnasium into a community center. The city obtained proposals from local banks and accepted Cottonport Bank’s offer at a 3.5 percent interest rate.

The final straw in the city’s dealings with USDA came when a USDA official said the community center could not be used for recreational purposes, such as basketball games.

     City officials said one of the main elements of the Bethune project was to establish a place where youth of the community could go for such activities as basketball. There was even hopes of establishing a basketball league program.

     The city has  $450,000 in capital improvement funds from the state and was only awaiting the additional $200,000 to start the project.  The city previously received $200,000 from the state to make roof repairs in anticipation of the larger renovation project.

     Simmesport’s request was for $80,000 to fund re-roofing the town hall and the VFW Hall, which is owned by the town.