The Illinois Rural Bond Bank is now accepting - without cost or obligation - loan applications for its Fall 1996 pooled bond issue. Municipalities and other units of local government that are looking for money to finance public improvement projects, purchase equipment, match state grants or refinance outstanding debt are encouraged to participate in the Bond Bank program.

Closing - at which time funds become available - is scheduled for Thursday, December 19, 1996. Applications for refinancings and financings that are approved by referendum may be submitted as late as Friday, November 1. Local officials interested in obtaining low-cost Bond Bank funds for other financings (e.g., water and sewer revenue bonds) must submit an application by Friday, September 27. Borrowing rates will be determined on Tuesday, December 10. (Rates for the Bond Bank's Spring pooled bond issue, which closed in June, ranged from 4.15% in 1997 to 6.00% in 2011.)

The Bond Bank has issued in excess of $60 million in bonds on behalf of 105 local governments throughout the State. The amount of money that a community may borrow through the Bond Bank is determined by the community's needs and its ability to repay the debt. Communities have borrowed as little as $100,000 and as much as $3.8 million through the pooled bond program. Terms have ranged from two to thirty years.

For a complete schedule and an application, please call Daria Gebhart, in Springfield at (217) 524-2663. The Bond Bank's "North of 1-80" representative, Dick Welton, may be contacted at (847) 623-7650. Members of the Bond Bank are available to meet with local officials to discuss their community's financing needs and the Bond Bank's programs in greater detail. •

August 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 23