City of Amarillo issuing debt for landfill and neighborhood park amenities

The debt for PIDs only affects residents in the Colonies and Heritage Hills.

KFDA News Channel 10
By Sydnee Batzlaff
Published: Dec. 28, 2022 at 5:08 PM GMT-7

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The City of Amarillo is planning to issue over $10 million in debt, addressing issues at the landfill and with neighborhood park amenities.

The city says one of these issuance is for “Certificates of Obligation,” meaning it doesn’t need tax payer approval.

$6.3 million will go toward the development at the landfill and the remaining amount, about $4.2 million is for two public improvement districts to pay for amenities in their neighborhoods.

The debt for PIDs only affects residents in the Colonies and Heritage Hills.

“Those park amenities have already been completed, they were completed by the developers and so now those have been turned over to the city and now the residents inside those neighborhoods have to pay for the total cost of those parks amenities,” said Laura Storrs, assistant city manager and chief financial officer, City of Amarillo.

As Amarillo continues to thrive and grow, the landfill begins to fill up.

“We need to develop the next phase of our landfill out there to make sure we have capacity for many years going forward,” said Storrs.

She says the debt issuance will be paid out over 20 years.

“We’re matching those that are using that portion of the landfill with those that are actually paying for the services, otherwise, if we had, let’s say saved up cash to pay for it, that means prior solid waste customers were paying for something that future solid waste customers are using,” said Storrs.

The city will have to go through a bid process and then it will begin construction, a year from now is when the city expects to be able to start putting trash in the new area of the landfill.

On Jan. 10, Storrs says they will sell bonds and bring those to council where they will recommend they award the debt issuance to the lowest bidder.