Interest rate comes in lower than hoped

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BEACON FALLS — The town received a favorable interest rate on a bond.

The town received five bids for the $4.35 million it wants to bond. The winning bid from the New York-based investment banking firm Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC came in with a true interest cost of 1.85 percent.

First Selectman Christopher Bielik said the interest rate was significantly lower than what officials had expected, which was about 2 percent based on rates received by other towns.

Bielik said the five bids the town got ranged in interest rates from 1.85 to 2.08 percent.

“Any one of them would have been great for the town,” Bielik said.

Bielik said Morgan Stanley also offered a discount of $133,000, which means the town would only have to pay back a principal balance of $4.22 million.

“It was a grand slam home run,” Bielik said of the bid.

The bond will cover the refinancing of a $3.13 million bond and $1.2 million in capital projects.

The capital projects include a new 75-foot quintuple combination pumper fire truck, a Ford F-550 dump truck with a plow and sander, two Ford Explorers for the police department, and a tractor with a boom mower.

Bielik said the low interest rate on the bond, which comes on the heels of the town’s increased bond rating, shows that Beacon Falls is moving in a positive direction.

“The market has now spoken and the market says the town is in outstanding financial position. We believed that going in and to have the market saying that back … gratifying doesn’t even begin to encapsulate it. I take a little bit of pride in that,” Bielik said.