Geneva alderpersons recommend OK of $30M for electric upgrade

GENEVA – Geneva alderpersons on Jan. 16 unanimously recommended approval of the city to borrow $30 million by issuing alternate revenue bonds to pay for improvements to the electric infrastructure for continued development of the North Geneva Business Park, Fabyan Parkway and South Kirk Road corridors.

As alderpersons were acting as the Committee of the Whole, the City Council will take final action at its Feb. 5 meeting.

“The electric utility has identified future capacity and infrastructure needs due to the increased development of the North Geneva Business Park, the Fabyan Parkway and South Kirk Road corridors,” City Administrator Stephanie Dawkins said. “To fund these improvements, an alternate revenue bond must be issued.”

The City Council approved contracts in November related to the bond issuance and the public hearing was held in December, Dawkins said.

Once the City Council approves it, the bond sale is expected to be in late February, Dawkins said.

According to the ordinance, the alternate revenue bond will pay for a substation and transmission feeders and for the construction of a transmission feeder into the Kirk Road and Fabyan Parkway corridors and expanding the Geneva Business Park substation.

An electric feeder line is a type of power line in which electricity is transmitted through power systems. The feeder transmits power from a generating station or substation to the distribution points.

The city will make principal and interest payments on the general obligation (alternate revenue source bonds) installments over the next 23 years, no later than Feb. 1, 2047, according to the ordinance.

The bonds will be paid off from the net revenue of the city’s electric utility, according to the ordinance.

If, for some reason, the electric utility’s revenue is not enough to pay the principal and interest on the bonds, property taxes would be levied to cover the cost, according to the ordinance.