Chowchilla Makes Good

Chowchilla has made its full June interest payment on its lease revenue bonds after previously defaulting and using up its reserve fund.

The Chowchilla Public Financing Authority Tuesday made its June 15 interest payment of more than $115,000 and $135,000 in maturing principal, according to a disclosure filing to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board by its trustee, U.S. Bank.

The authority has also restored its debt-service reserve fund to its required level.

“The trustee would like to applaud the authority for its appropriation and budget of debt service,” the filing said.

After the City Council voted in June last year not to appropriate a city hall lease payment, Chowchilla defaulted a month later on the interest and principal payment, which was paid from the debt service reserve.

City officials didn’t pay the $367,000 lease payment to help bridge a general fund budget gap of more than $1 million on only $4.1 million in revenue.

The authority has $5.9 million of outstanding bonds that financed renovation of a commercial building into Chowchilla’s civic center.

The city is in the agricultural Central Valley, about 30 miles north of Fresno and 140 miles south of Sacramento. The population of 18,700 includes 7,700 prisoners at its two state prisons.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Bankruptcy California
MORE FROM BOND BUYER