The Clinton City Council meeting from last Monday evening officially will adjourn this afternoon.

The Council went to recess until this afternoon. The Council approved a loan with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for a number of projects in Clinton. The ordinance for the loan needs to be on file for 7 days before the Council could approve that. And Clinton Mayor Carolyn Peter's explains because the I-EPA needs the application for the loan as soon as possible, so the Council will convene this afternoon at 4:30 to approve the loan.

[audio:councilrecess1.mp3]A Word From Mayor Peters[/audio]

The city will be taking out two loans with the EPA. City Administrator for Clinton, Tim Followell says one loan will be going towards a number of main extensions and the other towards a well repair.

[audio:councilrecess2.mp3]A Word From Followell[/audio]

At the time of the project, Commissioner Tom Edmunds was acting Mayor for Clinton, and it was his signature that was on the paperwork for the loan. Until recently, the EPA informed the Council that they needed current Mayor Peters' signature in order to move forward with the project and approving the loan, which Mayor Peters says, put the city behind, and in a time crunch.

[audio:councilrecess3.mp3]A Word From Mayor Peters[/audio]

The reason for the urgency in getting the loan approved is because there is a 25% forgiveness on the loan, and with the estimated cost of the total loan, the city would save around 300-thousand dollars. The city will be able to pay back the low interest loan, which is a 20-year loan, without raising the sales tax.

The repayment of the well loan will be coming out of the water fees, which have been in place about 10 years. And the water main loan will be coming out of the home rule sales tax.