Fishers considering $1M short-term loan for road maintenance

Fishers officials are considering whether to issue a $1 million bond to be paid back in just one year to fund road resurfacing projects throughout the city.

"We wouldn’t use it for any other construction or projects,” city controller Oscar Gutierrez said.

Mayor Scott Fadness said the bond would double the city’s initial road resurfacing budget to $2 million. He described the financing as “short term debt” for the city and a “cash flow issue”.

The mayor said he’d prefer a bond amount that was even higher—possibly $3-5 million—“but we’re going to be cautious about it.”

Fadness said the bond would not amount to "issuing debt to maintain our roads" because the city would have the revenue to pay it off so quickly.

And Gutierrez said the interest rate on the bond should be less than 1 percent.

The move will allow the city to completely resurface eroded roads instead of patching them in pieces, as the city had to do with Promise Road near Fishers High School," Fadness said.

“You’ve got patches all over the place,” Fadness said.

He said it’s necessary to use this kind of financing plan because the city can only use road impact fees to build new roads or widen existing streets. The fund cannot be used for maintenance projects.

The Fishers City Council will discuss the bond at its Nov. 16 meeting.