146 | BusinessWorld | August-September 2014
Tony O'Rourke
City Manager
And what's even nicer, she said, is that
the city has found creative ways to pay
for it all.
“This organization has been incredibly
fortunate in the fact that there's been
some really good grant and loan
opportunities that have been snared by
the staff,” she said, citing a series of
underpass and grade-separation work
that was ticketed at $43 million, but
only cost the city $200,000 thanks to
state and federal grant money. “We're
looking more and more at leveraging
money.
“We had a pretty low debt ratio for a
while, so nowwe're looking a littlemore
at pushing that debt ratio and
leveraging our money through bonds
and loans as opposed to wholly paying
for every project right off the bat and
having enough money in the bank first.
We're actually being a little more
brave
