Elburn to borrow money for sewer plant fix

Elburn officials have approved borrowing $235,000 via Kane County for repairs and upgrades to the town's sewage treatment plant.

The village has tacked a few things on to the initial plan, which was to borrow money to reconnect an underground electrical feed. Now, it will use the loan to put on a new roof, which entails moving its heating-ventilation-air conditioning unit, and buying a gasoline-powered backup electrical generator.

The village board voted on the matter this week.

Village officials expect to spend about $125,000 to reconnect an abandoned underground electrical feed, to serve as a secondary source should the main feed, an overhead line, come down. The plant lost power three times during storms in June, including a 13-hour outage one time when a tree fell on the line. The village borrowed small gasoline- and diesel-fueled generators to pump raw sewage out of a wet well and into the treatment ditches. If it hadn't, the sewage could have backed up in to homes and businesses.

The electrical work is already underway.

Officials expect to spend $40,000 to $60,000 on the roof, and $30,000 on the backup generator.

The loan is through the Kane County Recovery Zone's community development fund program. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 gave Kane County money to distribute to improve life for residents and stimulate the economy by funding projects that provide jobs. Elburn expects to pay the loan off in 10 years, at an interest rate of 3 percent. The federal government will rebate 45 percent of the interest paid, with four-fifths of that rebate going to Elburn and the remainder to Kane County.

The loan will be paid from water and sewer usage fees.

The village initially considered buying a large generator, at a cost of $539,000.