ENID — “This opportunity will never happen again.”

City Manager Eric Benson made that statement discussing how the city managed to acquire $20 million to pay for half of a proposed $40 million downtown renovation project.

That proposed project will be paid for with $20 million from the city using funds already acquired and a $20 million bond issue on the ballot Aug. 24. The bond issue money would be used to renovate Mark Price Arena/Convention Hall and Cherokee Strip Convention Center and build a new event center.

The project hinges on passage of the bond issue. If it is approved, the city would put in $20 million Benson said came through finding a new way of doing city business to identify a consistent revenue source for capital improvements.

“We weren’t running the city with any predictable revenue stream. We hadn’t raised water rates in 20 years. We just stabilized it so we could meet costs,” Benson said.

“Enid was headed toward its own demise,” he said. “We have to enrich the heritage for our kids and grandkids. The benefit is that more people will come to Enid.”

To have a consistent funding source for capital improvements, the city went more to automation and was able to change how one cent of the city’s sales tax was used.

When Benson became city manager nearly four years ago, there was $9 million in the general fund.

The city’s spending was down from about $13 million for necessary capital items and repairs, but the budget was trending downward after years of being built up at the expense of a number of city needs, he said.

“As we examined the previous history of city expenses, we saw a cycle of spending,” Benson said.

That cycle went from feast to famine, with no apparent long-term planning, he said.

Public Works Director Jim McClain, City Planner Chris Bauer, Finance Director Jerald Gilbert and Assistant City Manager Joan Riley joined Benson to find a new way of doing business, he said. Together, the group identified revenue sources and how to use them.

McClain was the first to change labor to technology, Benson said, when he could not hire people for some city jobs.

At that point, the city began a transition to automated trash trucks that saves thousands a year in personnel costs and also eliminated the No. 1 area of employee injury and workers’ compensation claims, Benson said.

“The changeover with the trash service has been huge,” Benson said.

Additionally, changing how the one cent of the city’s sales tax was used freed up more money.

Previously, one cent of the city’s sales tax was devoted to paying off water bonds. That one cent provided a predictable revenue stream.

It also was bringing in more than was needed to pay the water bonds,  Benson said. Plus, there is a period when no bond payment will have to be made.

Riley said there is a greatly reduced payment for the water bonds in 2011 and no payment in 2012. The payments would begin again in 2013, and the bonds would be paid off in 2017.

She said no one knows for sure why the bond payment schedule was set that way because it was done many years ago. However, in the long term, Enid will need to develop some type of long-term water source, which will provide another use for those funds, she said.

In 2008, as part of a city bond issue, voters approved a change to the sales tax devoted to water bonds, providing access to the money for capital improvements.

“That was our first goal, to develop a predictable financial income,” Benson said.

The one cent of the sales tax gives the city access to $10 million, which will grow to about $13 million with no bond payments.

“With the two-year gap in water bond payments, we have a set amount of revenue,” Riley said. “The bonds will pay off this year and don’t pick up with new bonds for two years then will pay off in five years.”

“This opportunity will never come again,” Benson said. “Enid never embraced the financial horizon before. They never looked at leveraging those accounts, this is a new way of doing business,” Benson said.

Benson credited Gilbert and Riley as being the keys to the success of the planning, as well as former city commissioner Daron Rudy, a professional financial consultant who understands how revenue is created, Benson said.

The real author of the plan is Riley, Benson said, although Rudy guided the commission through the process.

The city “cautiously and diligently” built the financial plan. They provided training for the commission and provided financial discipline by balancing the city budget the past four years, he said.

“Our auditors say Enid is the most financially sound city in the state,” Benson said.

Estimated revenue to Enid if the downtown renovation project is approved is $35 million, Benson said, based on the expected number of visitors and published average amount of spending. He said the net wealth of the entire community will rise.

“We’ll have a nicer city to enjoy, a quality of life, a nice place to live, stay and play,” Riley said. “Oklahoma cities and towns can’t wait for things to come to them, they have to go get it.”