By EDWARD HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
The Mill Creek Water District's governing board still hasn't decided how to proceed with a $3.25 million water project in light of the Adams County Board's decision last month to give the district only $950,000 in recovery zone bonding authority.
The district had requested $3.25 million of the $6.483 million in bond cap issued to Adams County through the federal government's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. However, the County Board decided to allocate $5,533,000 -- or 85 percent of the cap -- to the Quincy Public Library for a major construction project, with the rest going to the water district.
The water district's board of trustees held its regular monthly meeting this week and discussed what it should do next, but it took no action.
"We've not reached a decision yet. We're still mulling it over," said Gerald Christner, board president.
Christner said the board is "definitely" still interested in pushing forward with its project, but it is still weighing its funding options.
"It's still on," Christner said. "We're just getting our ducks in a row is what we're doing."
Christner said the board doesn't want to make any hasty decisions on such a major financial undertaking.
"We want to do what's absolutely best for the district," he said. "We're not under any time constraints at all."
One option that may be available is to seek "Build America" bonds, which are available to public entities without restriction. Build America bonds offer a federal rebate of 35 percent on interest costs. While that's attractive, it's not as good a deal as the recovery zone bonds, which offered a 45 percent rebate.
The district wants to expand its water production capabilities by developing a new well and building a new treatment plant along Ill. 57. It also wants to construct a 500,000-gallon storage tank and booster pumps, install additional water mains and expand the size of certain mains to provide greater efficiency and capacity.
The district serves more than 2,000 water customers in five townships immediately outside of Quincy.
-- ehusar@whig.com/221-3378
