FY27 TAN Financing

The City of Ellsworth, Maine, is soliciting proposals for the purchase of the City’s 2026 $3,000,000 Tax Anticipation Note.          

Project Details

• Reference ID: 2026-GEN-007
• Department: Finance
• Department Head: Ashlie Brown (Deputy Finance Director)

Evaluation Criteria

• Important Instructions for Electronic Submittal —

  The City of Ellsworth, ME is accepting electronic bid submissions. Bidders shall create a FREE account with OpenGov Procurement by signing up at https://procurement.opengov.com/signup. Once you have completed account registration, browse back to this page, click on "Submit Response", and follow the instructions to submit the electronic bid.

• Scope of TAN Request —

  Amount:	$3,000,000
  Purpose:	Annual working capital financing for the City’s 2026-2027 fiscal year
  Loan Structure:	Funds to be available to the City on an as-needed basis
  Settlement Date:	o/a July 1, 2026
  Maturity Date:	o/a June 30, 2027
  Payment Schedule:	Principal and Interest paid at maturity
  Pre-payable:	Yes, at any time without penalty
  Tax Exempt:	Yes
  Section 265(b) Bank Qualified:	Yes

   

   

• City's Financial Statements —

  https://www.ellsworthmaine.gov/services/documents-forms/

• Bid Evaluations —

  The City reserves the right to waive or disregard any informalities, irregularities, or deficiencies in any proposal, to accept any proposal, or to reject any and all proposals, should it be deemed for the best interest of the City to do so.

• Bond Counsel —

  Pierce Atwood LLP, acting as bond counsel for the City, will advise the City. At closing, the firm will issue its opinion that the Note has been duly authorized and validly issued as a tax anticipation note of the City and as to the tax exempt status of the interest thereon for Federal income tax purposes. Please send a copy to bond counsel for the City: James Saffian, Pierce Atwood LLP, Merrill's Wharf, 254 Commercial Street, Portland, ME 04101, jsaffian@pierceatwood.com.

Submission Requirements

• Proposal Documents (required) —

  Your bid should include the following information regarding the Note as appropriate for each bid:

  1. Interest rate to be charged and the basis upon which interest is computed.
  2. Total amount of interest to be paid assuming the full amount of the loan ($3,000,000) was drawn at closing and outstanding for the full term.
  3. Length of time the bid will be open; minimum period should be until June 17, 2026.
  4. Other terms and conditions.

  Bids cannot be for part of the TAN but must be for the entire $3,000,000. 

• Proposal (without Cost Proposal) (required) —

  Please Upload your COMPLETE Proposal here. Upload fee proposal separately in the next step.

• Separate Cost Proposal (required) —

  Confirm that your fee proposal is not attached in your Proposal and is attached separately here.

• Bid Bond (required) —

  Each bid shall be accompanied by a certified cashier’s check, or bid bond, in the amount of XXXXXof the total bid price, payable toCity of Ellsworth, ME, as a guarantee that the bidder, if its bid is accepted, will promptly execute the Agreement. The bidder shall guarantee the total bid price for a period of 60 days from the date of the bid opening.

  Please scan and upload a copy of your bid bond/cashier's check. Bidder must also MAIL bid guarantee with a postmarked date no later thanTuesday, June 2, 2026 addressed to:

  City of Ellsworth, ME
  Ashlie Brown
  1 City Hall Plaza
  Ellsworth,ME04605

  Please have the Bidder Name, Contract Title ("FY27 TAN Financing"), and Contract Number ("2026-GEN-007") listed clearly on the outside of the envelope.

• Contract Execution, Payment Bond, Performance Bond, and Certificate(s) of Insurance (required) —

  The contract shall be executed by the successful bidder and shall be returned, together with the Payment Bond, Performance Bond and Certificate(s) of Insurance to City of Ellsworth, ME so that it is received within 14 working daysafter the bidder has received the contract for execution. Failure to do so shall be just cause for forfeiture of the proposal guaranty.

• Bid Bond (required) —

  Will this solicitation require a bid bond?

• Electronic Pricing Table (required) —

  Would you like to have bidders respond to an electronic pricing table through OpenGov?

  Some examples of of when to say "yes":

  1. This is a quote for goods or commodities
  2. This is a public works bid, with a pricing table that can be uploaded into ProcureNow from an excel spreadsheet
  3. Seeking services for hourly rate schedules
• Separate Fee Proposal Upload (required) —

  If you are NOT using the Electronic Pricing Table option, will you want your bidder to separate a Price Proposal from the rest of their Response? You'll want to do this if you open your bids initially WITHOUT showing price, and then come back in after a technical evaluation to unseal pricing later.

• Evaluation Committee? (required) —

  Will there be an evaluation committee to review the proposals and score them based on weights and multiple criteria?