By Joe BarkerRecord Staff WriterIn an effort to save the taxpayers money, the city of Marthasville voted to pay off a general revenue sewer bond from 2002 seven years ahead of schedule.Mayor David Lange said the move will save the town roughly $11,000 in interest payments. At the July 16 meeting, the board of aldermen voted 3-1 in favor of paying the bond off early with Alderman Mike Kloeppel voting against the proposal.Marthasville took out a $200,000 bond in 2002 to upgrade the city’s sewer lagoon, Lange said. The bonds were supposed to be paid back in 20 years. The final payment was due June 1, 2022.According to documents provided by Lange, the city owed about $95,000 on the bonds.Lange said he contacted United Missouri Bank about the city possibly paying back its bond early. He said he found out there was no prepayment penalty. City Attorney Jamis Kresyman confirmed there was no repayment penalty after she checked over the original contract during the meeting.Lange said he felt comfortable paying off the loan early because of the city’s expenses and reserves. He said the city had budgeted $163,900 for sewer expenses for the 2015-16 fiscal year.Based on those expenses, Lange said the city still expected reserves of $379,653.54 in the sewer fund.“That’s almost 4 1/2 years of sewer and operating expenses,” Lange said. “That’s pretty good.”Lange said the city has $15,091.90 in the sewer debt service fund and $22,186.68 in sewer debt service reserve fund. That combined $37,278.58 would be put toward the paying off the bond.The rest of the money, nearly $58,000, would come from the surplus fund.“We’d still be in good shape,” Lange said. “The bonding director said that, as long as we have the money, he’d recommend paying it off early.”Lange said the reserve fund are on a CD drawing interest at a rate of 0.30 percent. The sewer bonds have an interest rate of 5.25 percent that goes up to 5.50 percent in 2018.Lange said the bonding agent told him if the city had paid down the bond five years ago, it could have saved taxpayers a total of $25,000 in interest.City of Marthasville