South Lebanon adopts emergency ordinance to create sewer improvement fund for River Corridor project

The South Lebanon City Council on March 5 adopted Emergency Ordinance 2026-01 to establish a sewer improvement fund to finance upgrades, repairs and capital improvements for the River Corridor sewer project.

Mayor Burke introduced the ordinance and Finance Director Tina said the new fund is a necessary next step to record the loan and provide transparency for project costs. "This is just one of those next steps as far as getting this all set up, as far as being awarded the loan, now finding the proper accounting for it and where we're going to report it so we have that transparency to see all the costs that are associated with the project," Tina said. She added that if the ordinance is approved the city will seek the state office's approval and then return to council to appropriate the $10.5 million project already awarded to Majors: "And then I'll be coming back to council asking you to appropriate that 10 and a half million dollar project that we have already awarded to Majors."

Council unanimously voted to waive the two-reading requirement and adopted the ordinance by title only. The council recorded the motion and affirming votes as 'Yay' for each member present; the mayor announced the motion carried.

Why it matters: creating a distinct fund will let the city track project expenses separately from general revenues and comply with lender and grant accounting requirements. According to council discussion, the ordinance does not itself appropriate the construction funds; that appropriation is a separate future council action contingent on the state office’s administrative clearance.

Next steps: City staff said they will send the ordinance to the state office for approval and return to council with an appropriation ordinance to formally allocate the $10.5 million for the project. No construction contracts will proceed until appropriation occurs.

Ending: The ordinance was adopted by title only at the March 5 meeting, and staff indicated they will follow up with the state office and bring the appropriation back to council for a future vote.