By Gary Lloyd
Trussville City Schools has received permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with the construction of the Hewitt-Trussville Stadium behind the Trussville Civic Center.
Facilities Coordinator Barry Davis confirmed the school system has received the permits.
Davis said the school system has signed the contracts with Blalock Building Company and construction should start soon. A community-wide groundbreaking ceremony is tentatively set for Sept. 24 at 5 p.m. Details for the event will be released soon, Davis said.
“We are very excited to begin the construction of the project,” Davis said.
The Trussville City Council recently authorized Mayor Gene Melton to establish an $18 million line of credit for construction of Hewitt-Trussville Stadium, the bridge over the Cahaba River and the completion of Husky Parkway.
“We were looking at different options as to how we fund that prior to us doing our refinancing,” Melton said. “Instead of taking the chance that we have to have money today, and having to pull the trigger on our refinancing that same day … there’s no telling what the interest rate would be on that. To give us time, that line of credit will allow us to proceed with our RFP and give the group that we select to do our refinancing to pick the proper time to pull the trigger to get the best interest rate for the refinancing and the new note. That gives us a year.”
Melton said this option gives the city some “breathing room.” The line of credit is in place to get the projects started, he said. Once the bond issue is done, then there are provisions to pay it back and do away with the line of credit, Melton said.
More to come on this story as it develops.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.