City of Ashland City Administrator Lyn Woolford announced Tuesday that the City of Ashland had paid off its 2002 and 2013 water and waste water bonds in full.

The news is significant, said Woolford, because it pays the taxpayers of Ashland $22,003 in interest payments.

It also allows the city to look forward to paying off two more bonds in the near future, said Mayor Gene Rhorer.

“We want to pay off a total of four bonds as quickly as possible – they total $1.3 million,” Rhorer said. “There are two more bonds that we need to pay off.”

The City of Ashland is paying just over 5% on those bonds, interest that Rhorer says he wants to get off the books.

“It’s a great way to create savings and improves the city’s credit rating,” Rhorer added. “We have a AAA credit rating and we’re not going to let that slide.”

The bonds were for water projects that improved capacity, built a new water tower and improved capacity at the city’s sewer lagoon. Those improvements will dovetail into the new mechanical sewer plant that the city will be breaking ground on later this year.

By Bruce Wallace