By David Fox City leaders are awaiting final details from their bankers as to how they will float a bond issue to raise $5.5 million to help pay for the multi-storey car park at Bull's Head.

It is believed that the issue will be floated somewhere around April. The Mayor of Hamilton, the Rt. Wor. William Boyle, is confident that it will be offered at rates competitive to the market at that time.

The total cost of the parking facility is expected to be in the region of $5.5 million, and Mayor Boyle said that the bond issue will probably finance 90 percent of the cost.

The Corporation of Hamilton is working with the Bank of Butterfield, who provided a bridging loan to get the work started some months ago. It is expected that the capital attracted from the bond issue will be used to pay off the money owing to the bank.

Mr. Boyle said, "All the final details have not yet been worked out, but we know it will be issued some time in the Spring. I'm thinking that it will be above the market rate, but we cannot guarantee that at this time.

"I'm sure though that it will be an attractive investment for Bermudians to participate in. We will probably put it out for 15 years, with a clause that will allow it to be redeemed after four or five years.

"All the final terms have not yet been finalised, but if the interest rates suddenly dropped, that way we would be able to redeem the bonds or call them in, if the Corporation has the money to repay them all.

"We wouldn't want to have money sitting around doing nothing and we would need the option to be able to use extra money to retire some of the debt, if we could.'' The car park is slated to be completed by next November, having been under construction since August this year. Mayor Boyle said that the City will move to implement pay parking on the streets of Hamilton around the same time the bond is issued to help fund the costs.

He confirmed that millions of dollars have already been spent on the car park project and that money will have to be set aside to pay interest on the bonds for subscribers, even before any revenue is to be derived from the Bull's Head parking structure.

The Corporation expects to have the car park paid for within 12 years. But they still have not yet decided on what they will charge for use of the 700-car parking lot. It will be cheaper than other city parking rates.

"We're trying to make parking there as attractive as possible, to encourage people to park there for the full day. We don't know yet what we will charge, but it will be less than any of our other rates.

"It would leave the more central car parks open for short-term parking.

Parking at City Hall costs 50 cents an hour. If you park there all day, it will cost you about $4.50, or about $90 a month, which by world standards is a very modest rate, especially considering that we normally pay more for things in this country, as opposed to less.

"Still $90 a month to some people may be a lot of money. It is not our intention to discourage people from driving into the City and we don't want to gouge people who want to park all day. So it will be cheaper than that to park at Bull's Head.'' More details of the new parking are also beginning to emerge, or at least the City's thinking about those details.

For example, there is always the issue of security and whether or not there will be attendants on the premises.

Mr. Boyle said,"We haven't finalised that yet, but I think we are going to opt for an automated system for the actual parking part of it and then provide some security.'' It would also appear that the facility will not operate at night.

"That we haven't finalised yet. But because it becomes a security problem, I don't think it will be. Just for security reasons, and to keep people from sleeping up there or doing anything else up there, we will probably lock it up like we lock up the Number One Dock parking facility on Front Street at night.''