Fort Mill council approves up to $22 million in bonds to fund new fire station and public works center

The Fort Mill Town Council on second reading approved Ordinance 2026‑11, authorizing installment purchase revenue bonds not to exceed $22,000,000 to finance construction of Fire Station No. 3 in Masons Bend and a portion of a new public works operations center on Banks Road.

Eric Davis, the council's subject matter expert on the item, told council the bonds will “authorize the issuance, for not to exceed amount of $22,000,000 installment purchase revenue bonds,” and said the funds will be used for the fire station and to fund part of the operations center. He said the ordinance is a second reading and that only technical red‑line amendments were proposed since the first reading.

Bond counsel Theodore DeBose described the documents as largely technical and said the council should approve the redline amendments before the second reading. After a brief discussion about several backup transactional documents that remain to be finalized, councilmember (speaker 1) asked for confirmation that those blanks would be filled in after ordinance approval; DeBose and Davis said the ordinance authorizes the mayor and town staff to follow through with final transactional documents.

Council moved to approve the amendments and then approved second reading of Ordinance 2026‑11 by voice vote. The council did not record individual rollcall votes in the transcript; the motion carried by voice vote with no opposing voices reported.

The council noted the expected closing timeline for the financing is around June 30 and that additional transactional documents would be completed between approval and closing. No member raised substantive objections to the projects’ scope during the meeting.

Next steps: Staff will finalize transactional documents and proceed toward the scheduled financing and project close-out. The town expects design and construction planning to continue following closing.