Reference · the full cost case
What the $54.5 Million Bond Would Cost
This page documents the fire-station bond the City Council approved on May 19, 2026 and rescinded on June 16, 2026, after residents filed a petition for a public vote. It is kept here as a reference: the full cost breakdown, the gap versus the city’s own earlier estimate, and the question the city has not answered in writing. If a bond of this size comes back, this is the case for putting it on the ballot.
From the official Ehlers Pre-Sale report
The Math: Why This Matters
A $32 million building. A $54.5 million bill. Here is what the numbers actually say, and why residents asked to put it on the ballot.
$54.5M
Total taxpayer obligation
over 21 years
$21.2M
Pure interest penalty
nearly 40% of the total cost
$32M
Actual building cost
the fire station itself
$400K
Drained from the general fund
to cover early interest payments
And your share of that bill ≈ $7,800 in extra property taxes for a typical home, over 21 years
Where every dollar actually goes
39¢ of every dollar taxpayers repay is pure interest, not one brick of fire station. For every $1.00 of building, we repay about $1.70.
$33,000 → $54,500
It’s like taking out a $33,000 loan and paying back $54,500. The extra $21,200 is pure interest.
Nearly a 2nd station
The $21.2 million in interest alone could cover two-thirds of a second $32 million fire station.
Backwards from a home loan
A mortgage shrinks the day you sign. This bond pays interest-only for about four years (even borrowing an extra $1.3 million to make those payments), so the debt barely moves while interest stacks up.
About the city’s own cost estimate
The price grew about 67% in three years.
In October 2023, the city’s facility study (by BKV Group) priced the “build new” option at $17 to $19 million for a 26,800 square-foot station. By May 2026 the bond is asking residents to absorb $32 million in project construction, before $21.2 million of interest. That is roughly a 67% jump in three years on the construction line alone.
Construction-cost inflation since 2023 covers maybe 10 to 15 points of that increase. What about the other 50+? At the May 19 council meeting the Fire Chief described the process this way: “we’ve done cost-benefit analysis, we’ve done tours of fire stations with the council.” No public document explains what was added to the design after those tours, or how it translated into roughly $13 to $15 million of extra construction cost. Residents are being asked to fund the answer without seeing it.
The bond packet does not explain how the city’s own $17M–$19M estimate became $32M. Residents deserve a written answer before being asked to absorb $54.5 million over 21 years.
Source: BKV Group Fire Station Study, presented to City Council October 3, 2023. Replacement Option 1 total project cost: $17,109,884–$19,238,948. Posted on the city’s South Fire Station project page.
The city chose a financing structure that borrows money to pay its own interest and drains general-fund reserves to cover early payments. The repayment is backloaded across 21 years, and the city did not highlight this full picture for residents.
Taxpayers deserve transparency, and a direct vote on the largest financial investment in our city’s history. Our first responders deserve a great facility, and we need responsible financing to pay for it. A public vote lets our community decide both. Residents filed a petition for a public vote, and on June 16, 2026 the Council rescinded the bond rather than send it to a ballot. If a bond of this size comes back, the same choice returns: put it to a public vote, switch to a costlier non-referendum bond, or pay cash. A public vote is the one option that puts the decision in our hands.
Read the city’s full report (PDF) Source: Ehlers Pre-Sale Report, Series 2026A · City of Vadnais Heights Council packet, May 19, 2026 (item 10A).
From the city’s own approved check registers
What the City Has Already Spent
The bond was rescinded, so nothing was borrowed. But the city has kept paying for this project out of its own funds, and the meter has not stopped.
$1.32M
Spent so far
the city’s own figure, from city funds, not the bond
~92%
Paid to the architect
for a building never bid or built
$0
Actually borrowed
the levy, not a bond, pays it back
$354K
Paid after the rescind
the latest check cleared Sept 15, 2026
Checks written for the project, over time
Spent before the June 16 rescind (~$936K) Spent after the rescind (~$354K)
Each step is a council-approved check clearing, totaling $1.30 million. The last step is a single $91,667 payment to the project architect, cleared September 15, 2026, three months after the bond was rescinded. Counting checks one at a time now lands within about $24,000 of the city’s own $1.32 million figure above. Source: city check registers, 2024 to Sept 2026.
The city’s website and the city’s budget say different numbers
The city’s project website says it has “invested approximately $1 million” and calls that “typical for a project of this size.” Its own 2027 budget memo, written by the finance director, says about $1.32 million has been spent so far. Both are the city’s documents. Almost all of it is architectural and design work.
Because the bond was rescinded, this spending cannot be paid back from bond proceeds. Instead the city is recovering it through the property-tax levy. By its own math, $835,000 was levied for the project in 2025 and 2026, and the proposed $500,000 for 2027 would bring the total to $1,335,000, leaving “less than $20,000” for anything new. In other words, next year’s fire-station tax line pays for work already done, on a building that was never bid or built.
Sources: City of Vadnais Heights 2027 preliminary budget memo, council workshop of September 1, 2026 (the $1.32 million and the levy figures); the city’s fire-station project website; and the council claims register of September 15, 2026. The chart above tracks a narrower measure, the $1.30 million of checks actually issued through September 2026, each one traceable to a council-approved claim. The two measures have nearly converged: the city’s figure counted bills it had received but not yet paid, and it has since paid them.
How Much Would You Pay?
The bond would have added a brand-new property-tax increase to pay off the fire-station debt, charged on top of the taxes you already pay. Slide to your home’s value to see what it would have cost.
Estimated EXTRA tax, total over 21 years
~$7,800
Added to your property-tax bill each year (at full cost)
~$475/yr
Heads up: the city’s report described this as about “$1 to $2 a day,” and the city’s May 19 update tells residents to expect “roughly $44.48/year” in 2027. Both are technically accurate, and both are the smallest possible slice of the bill (the first year of a 21-year ramp). Nobody pays property taxes by the day or the month, you pay them once or twice a year, and the figures above are what actually lands on your tax bill.
It starts small, then climbs every year (for your home)
Why “~$45 to $60 in 2027–2030” is even possible for your home
The early years are pre-funded by the bond itself. Through 2030, the new bond runs interest-only (no principal payments yet), and the city set aside about $1.3 million of bond proceeds as “capitalized interest” to cover most of those early interest payments before they would otherwise land on residents’ tax bills. About $409,000 of general-fund money also softens 2029–2030. That is why bar 1 above looks so small.
Then in 2035, the structure does something else. A separate city bond (Series 2020A, about $467,000 per year in debt service, originally issued for the Commons / North Service Center) is set to retire that year. Without this fire-station bond, that ~$467,000 levy would have come off your tax bill in 2035, about $67 per year for the typical $421,900 home. Instead, the city is redirecting it to the fire station for another 12 years.
The on-record explanation from the May 19 hearing: “You are already effectively paying into that bond it exists today. It’s already built into the levy that is year over year. That will be rolled into pay for the fire station.”
Sources: Ehlers Pre-Sale Report (Series 2026A), capitalized-interest fund $1,344,166; general-fund draw ~$409,000 (~$357K in 2029 + ~$52K in 2030); page 17 “wrap the debt issuance around the 2020A bond issue to utilize the existing DEBT levy of approximately $467,000 starting in 2035.” City of Vadnais Heights 2026-2030 CIP, “Existing Debt Service Subject to the Limit: $467,281.”
These are estimates. Amounts are based on the city’s 105% debt-levy figures in the Ehlers Pre-Sale Report (Series 2026A); the slider and per-stage amounts scale a home’s share of the $54.5M obligation as the levy ramps up (which is why the 21-year total is less than the full yearly amount times 21). All amounts are on top of current property taxes and depend on the final bond rating and terms.
What the City Did NOT Study
Before residents are asked to fund a $32 million build at the South site, one alternative deserves to be on paper, not just answered verbally at a hearing.
The North station was never analyzed.
The city’s October 2023 facility study (by BKV Group) evaluated four options for the project: three renovations and one full replacement, all at the South site. Renovating or expanding the city’s modern north-side facility (Station #2, completed in 2010 by Oertel Architects, designed for live-in firefighters) was not one of the four.
When residents asked about it at the May 19, 2026 council meeting, the Fire Chief described Station #2 as “designed as a satellite station, not an actual staff facility.” That verbal characterization is the only public answer to why an alternative location was not formally priced. What would it cost to renovate or expand Station #2 for full-time operations? Could it be enlarged? The city does not say, because no study was commissioned to find out.
Residents deserve a written engineering review of Station #2, not just a verbal explanation, before being asked to absorb $54.5 million on a single-site project.
Sources: BKV Group Fire Station Study options table (no Station #2 entry); the Fire Chief’s remarks at the May 19, 2026 City Council bonding hearing.
Dig Into the Facts
Don’t take our word for it. Here are the primary documents and the news coverage, so you can decide for yourself.
Official documents & video
A decision this size belongs on the ballot.
The bond is off the table for now. If one like it comes back, residents can petition again. Get updates and we will tell you the moment something changes.
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