[Editor's Note: This is the first of several articles on the commissioners' special meeting on March 21, 2023.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

Grant County Resident James Baldwin started off the Grant County Commission March 21, 2023 meeting with a show-and-tell in public input.

Deputy Assessor Raul Turrieta picked up the mangled "School Bus Stop Ahead" sign to show the commissioners.

Baldwin thanked Turrieta and noted "Raul was a student of mine."

"This sign, which was probably hit by a car, has been lying on the ground near Artcher Street since the end of February," Baldwin said. His second complaint, which he exhibited on a map, dealt with the fact that the county tells him his property address is on Cottage San Road, but the U.S. Postal Service "tells me my address is on Bear Mountain Road. An old map from the 1940s or 1950s has it on Bear Mountain Road, with nothing about Cottage San Road. This USGS map from 1992 has me on Bear Mountain Road. I would like to find out what the name of the road is. If it's Bear Mountain Road, I would like for the county to fix it."

[Editor's Note: The County Road Supervisor, after his report later in the meeting, picked up the sign and took it with him when he left.]

The next item on the agenda addressed a financial update from Mark Valenzuela of Bosque Advisors LLC.

"This is an update on the market and the potential for the bonds sale," Valenzuela said. "I would also like to point out that our annual engagement agreement is about to expire. We've been your advisors for the past year as Bosque Advisors, but I've been working with Grant County through other entities for 20 years."

He showed a PowerPoint slide pointing out that "market interest rates remain volatile. They keep changing, with rates going down and now short-term rates are moving in the right direction though we need further decline in the early years of the curve."

"We are in an inverted yield curve," Valenzuela said. "That means that short-term bond interest rates right now are high, with long-term bond interest rates lower. An inverted yield curve usually leads to a recession. I check your rates weekly, but usually the day after I come talk to you everything changes. Right now, what I determined for your bonds would bring you savings. It is showing an up curve. We're starting to see that with the bank crises. A lot of people are taking their funds out of stocks and into bonds, which will likely lower short-term rates. Hopefully we will go back to a normalized curve, and you can refinance your 2019 bonds."

He also showed a graph of where the county's property rate stands. "It is moving up and increasing your bond capacity. The voters approved $8 million. If we sold all $8 million you would still have $20 million capacity. Copper is coming back. You are about to pay off your 2014 bonds this year. That was an opportunity to go out for more bonding, and that is still the plan. I'm showing we broke it up into two tranches of $4 million, which gives you more flexibility. It depends on when you need new capital for your projects. The bonds are based on your property tax rates, which leaves you further capacity for you to approach voters for more bonds without raising taxes. Right now, there is no reason to refinance the 2014 bonds which are at lower than the current interest rate. The bond ordinance you passed is good for two years, which gives you time."

The next article will get into the presentations by those who applied to be members of the Gila Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees.