The Great Neck Public Library’s $10.4 million bond to renovate its Main Branch has been awarded a Aaa bond credit rating by Moody’s Investors Service, the library learned this week.
Great Neck Library Business Manager Neil Zitofsky said the library was surprised to hear they were awarded Moody’s highest rating.
“It is my understanding that they have never awarded a Aaa rating to a library before,” Zitofsky said. “Typically they peg it one notch below the school district.”
Zitofsky said one notch below Aaa would be Aa2. He also said the Great Neck Public Schools have a Moody’s rating of Aaa as well.
“When Moody’s was on the phone with us, they saw how strong our library’s finances looked and said they needed to reconsider their practice,” Zitofsky said referring to the practice of giving a public library a lower rating than the school district.
What the high rating means for the library, Zitofsky said, is that library will save about $25,000 a year in debt services, because the high rating causes lower interest rates. Because the bond is for 20 years, the library will in the end save close to half a million dollars. The debt services are the semi-annual payments to pay off the bond.
Zitofsky said Moody’s looked at the past six years of revenues and expenditure summaries, as well as the past six years of the library’s balance sheets.
According to the ratings report given to the library by Moody’s, the ratings service took into account the wealthy tax base of the area and the solid finances of the library in it’s determination of the bond’s rating.
Residents of the Great Neck library system approved the bond last November in a referendum.
The bond renovations to the library’s main branch are scheduled to begin this month, and will include a new roof, insulated windows, a revamp of the HVAC system and new lighting.
