Reno County's $5.41 million bond deal would fund Evergy-driven McNew/Mills road rebuild

A $5.41 million bond deal dated July 23 would permanently finance Reno County's rebuild of S. McNew Road and Mills Avenue, work the county says supports an Evergy power plant project and Hutchinson's industrial park. The fiscal-impact note on the county's agenda item says the bonds are part of the financing required to complete the roadway project — one piece of the cost rather than all of it. The agenda gives no total project cost and names no other funding source.

Commissioners were scheduled to consider Resolution 2026-29 — authorizing the issuance, sale and delivery of the Series 2026-A bonds, along with the executed bond purchase agreement — as item 6.A at their regular session Wednesday, July 29. Bret Shogren, director of Stifel Public Finance, was listed on the agenda as presenting the item, and the agenda alone does not record whether commissioners approved it.

The same fiscal note says, "Failure to approve the documents will have significant fiscal impact."

St. Louis-based Stifel, Nicolaus & Company agreed to buy the entire issue at $5,876,905.20 — the $5,415,000 in principal plus $507,932.70 of original issue premium, less a $46,027.50 underwriter's discount, according to the purchase agreement. All four maturities carry a 5.000% coupon at yields of 3.350% to 3.660%, with principal due each Sept. 1 from 2032 through 2035 — $1,740,000, $1,165,000, $1,225,000 and $1,285,000 — and semiannual interest payable March 1 and Sept. 1 beginning March 1, 2027.

Delivery was conditioned on evidence the bonds had been rated "Aa3" by Moody's Investors Service, and the agreement set closing for 11 a.m. Central on Aug. 13 at the offices of bond counsel Gilmore & Bell. The purchase agreement is the only record available, and Citizen Journal has not confirmed the closing occurred as scheduled.

The purchase agreement describes the bonds as secured by a pledge of ad valorem property taxes — the property tax paid by county property owners — and names no other source of repayment. No debt service schedule and no mill-levy effect on Reno County property owners appear in the documents.

The same July 29 agenda carried Resolution 2026-30, exercising the right of eminent domain — the government's power to take private property for public use with compensation — as item 6.C. The agenda identifies no parcels, owners or purpose, and it does not say whether the resolution involves the road project.

The road borrowing is the county's second bond action in roughly a month tied to energy and industrial development. Citizen Journal reported July 9 that Reno County was advancing tax-exempt bonds for a renewable natural gas facility at the county landfill.

Reno County Commission regular sessions begin at 9 a.m. in the Veterans Room of the Reno County Courthouse, 206 W. 1st Ave. in Hutchinson. Public comment on items not on the agenda is limited to five minutes per item, and disability-related accommodations are arranged in advance through the County Counselor's Office at (620) 694-2926.

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