CAMBRIA - Stimulus money isn't free.
But, for the Cambria Village Board, the $301,675 local share for a major overhaul of the village's sanitary sewer system is a bargain on which the trustees unanimously agreed Monday.
The amount represents about half the cost of the work that's needed on the village's sewer system, parts of which are more than 50 years old.
The other half of the cost comes from the federal economic stimulus package, in the form of a low-interest Clean Water Fund loan.
Village Clerk Lois Frank said the board's issuance of sewerage system revenue bonds for the local share means that users of the sewer system, which serves solely the village, will eventually pay the money back with higher sewer bills.
How much higher won't be known until about two years from now. The sewer rates were adjusted this year, and are due to be readjusted in 2011. As with all rate readjustments, Frank said, indebtedness will be factored into computing the new rate.
Trustee Jim Pharo summed up the bond issuance as "getting the money to pay the bills" for the work, which is scheduled to start sometime this spring.
In April, the village board passed two resolutions to allow application for the money, which consists of federal stimulus funds infused to the Clean Water Fund, operated by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
In August, public works director Tom Tietz told the board that, as he had predicted, Cambria ranked eighth, in terms of need, among communities that had applied for the funds.
At that time, the cost of the project was estimated at about $255,000, and the Clean Water Fund money that the village would receive was estimated at $127,550.
The DNR refined and revised estimates in September, raising the estimated project cost to $589,000 and the Clean Water Fund amount coming to the village to $294,500. The terms of the loan are 20 years, at 2.668 percent interest, according to minutes from the trustees' Sept. 14 meeting.
The $310,675 in bonds represents principal and interest for the local share.
Frank said the village's attorney, Vytas Salna, had reviewed a thick packet of documents from the DNR and the bond attorneys, and found everything in order.
When work on the sanitary sewer system starts in the spring, Frank added, no disruption of service is anticipated.
ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com