Tired of “jumping through hoops” to borrow $200,000 from the USDA, the Marksville City Council is on the verge of pulling the plug on that funding source and seeking to borrow the money locally to complete the funding for the for the Mary Bethune Community Complex project.

Much of the council’s May 13 meeting was spent cussing and discussing the USDA’s stalling in releasing the promised $200,000 loan and the somewhat restrictive strings that it has attached to those funds.

 

Mayor John Lemoine, visibly and vocally upset by the whole matter, said the city “needs to pull away from USDA. If we jump through 10 hoops, they come back with 20 more for us to jump through.”

 

The city already has $450,000 in state capital improvement funds dedicated to the project. The total cost of the renovation project is $650,000. It was suggested that the city begin the renovation project with the $450,000 state grant it has in hand. However, the council was told that state law may require that all funds be received before the city can advertise for bids, award contracts and begin construction.

 

Lemoine said the remaining $200,000 is a loan, not a grant, so the city will have to repay the money to whoever it borrows it from. At this point, he said, he would rather that be with a local bank.

 

Another recent development is the USDA’s statement that it “does not fund recreational projects.”

 

That particularly irked Councilman Danny Benson, who said residents have been told the community center would be a place where youth could go to play basketball. There has even been preliminary plans made to form a basketball league that would utilize the Bethune center for its games.

 

“This is a loan,” Benson said. “It’s like me going to the bank to take out a car loan and the bank telling me what kind of car I can buy.”

 

City Engineer Rene Borrel said city officials and community representatives met with USDA several months ago to go over final details of the loan. He said that when the local group was listing all the benefits the community would get from the center -- local events, emergency shelter, educational programs, recreation programs including basketball -- the USDA representative “stopped us short and said there could be no recreational programs. I think his words were ‘USDA does not fund recreational projects.’” 

 

City officials stressed that the project has not been scrapped and the city will not have to “go back to Square One” to move forward with the project.

 

The council approved a revised resolution to request permission from the state Bond Commission to issue up to $200,000 of public improvement bonds to be financed by city tax receipts, but not mentioning the funding source. If approved, the city would be able to borrow the money to pay the immediate cost of the construction project and then dedicate enough tax revenues each year to pay the annual principal and interest costs to the lender.

 

The Bond Commission will meet in June.

 

It was noted that the city could begin seeking proposals from local banks for a loan and, if the USDA finally releases the funds in the next month, the city could still accept that loan. City officials will discuss the “no basketball” issue further with USDA before accepting the loan.