New Hyde Park roadwork bond rating remains stable

The Village of New Hyde Park said its bond rating for bonds acquired last year to fund major roadwork renovations was graded a stable AA by Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency.

The agency reaffirmed other bonds the village had taken, also at AA.

“It’s a challenging market; the fact that we retained our AA is very positive,” said Robert Lofaro, deputy mayor.

Over the summer, the village continued an 11-year project to transform its roads. Early on, an engineering firm graded all of New Hyde Park’s roads, and over the years the village has worked to fix them, starting with the worst ones first. This year, it estimated, 1.5 miles of roadway were torn up and rebuilt.

Nearly 18 miles of roadway have been fixed since 2001. Each year, New Hyde Park sets aside $500,000 in earmarks, but it must resort to borrowing, Lofaro has said. The most recent bond it issued was for $2.1 million; work on the village’s roads in 2012 cost $1.4 million.

Roosevelt & Cross, the bondholders, offered the lowest rate to the village in a bid, the village said. The village will pay less than 2 percent in principal and interest for the $1.3 million worth of bonds over the next 13 years.

The rating, “enables prospective bond buyers a level of comfort,” Lofaro said. “They’re buying a debt instrument that has a strong financial backing.”

Work on the roads is nearly finished, Lofaro said, but was delayed, in part, by superstorm Sandy.