Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Lakes International Language Academy has agreed to pay a $25,000 fee to the city of Pine City for its cooperation to issue $7.5 million in tax exempt revenue bonds for the school, the city said this week.

City Administrator Lynda Woulfe said this week the Pine City Council will conduct its final public hearing on the revenue bond proposal at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 1.

The financial arrangement will provide the Spanish immersion public charter school with the funding it needs to purchase and expand the school operation in the former District Memorial Hospital site, 246 SE 11th Ave.

Woulfe said on Monday the bonding proposition was raised with Pine City by Briggs & Morgan, bond counsel for Pine City and a firm that is also involved in the charter school project in Forest Lake in form of its financing and legal representation in lawsuits tied to the school use and purchase of the hospital campus property.

The Pine City official said the fee the school will pay will be used to buy park playground equipment or help with the Highway 61 beautification project.

Mary Ippel of Briggs & Morgan, said the revenue bond proposal in Pine City will enable the school to secure tax-exempt financing. The school will use the revenue bond to finance the acquisition of the 4.8 acres hospital building and property and to expand and equip the 68,000 square foot K-6 education facility.

The property is being purchased by the Lakes International Building Company that will lease the facility to the charter school.

Ippel said Briggs & Morgan turned to Pine City for the revenue bond issuance after the city of Forest Lake passed on the opportunity. Forest Lake wasnít able to handle the bonds, Ippel said, because of a possible revenue bond of its own in 2006 for the community center project.

In order to maintain ìbank qualifiedî standing and a lower interest rate on a bond issuance, a city cannot issue more than $10 million in bonds during a single year, she said.

She said the decision was a double win for Pine City. She said Pine City will see no charge against its general credit or taxing powers and also see the benefit of the schoolís fee payment. Ippel said Pine City will also see an additional $35,000 fee from a nursing home for a similar revenue bond proposal to assist with a 2006 project in North Branch.

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Forest Lake Times
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Forest Lake, MN 55025
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