Fairbury Approves $15 Million Finance Agreement For Electric Line Upgrades

By Gordon Hopkins The Fairbury City Council voted unanimously to approve a $15 million financing agreement to complete a second connecting power line into Fairbury from the south. The city selected a financial institution for the Combined Utilities Revenue Bond fund on Feb. 19.City Clerk Erin Reimer explained to the council, “The money market account is the best option. That allows some flexibility to move that money for payments on the project. So, the idea would to be to have those reimbursable dollars sit in the money market account without pushing them into the general account, to let them grow interest, and then just move what we need to cover expenses and let that grow and have that interest build up there.” At this time, Fairbury is fed electricity from the north by two lines that run parallel to each other and about a mile apart from each other. The risk is that an event that could take out one of those lines, such as a storm, would likely take out the other one as well, leaving the city without power, potentially for an extended period of time, such as what recently happened in Broken Bow when an explosion at the city’s power plant left the city without power for an estimated 33 hours.With that in mind, the city approved another line. The project is called the Steele City Transmission Line Project and a funding source is needed to continue the project. The city entered contract with NPPD for phase I of the project in November of 2024 and has already submitted payment for the transformer in the amount of $2,140,000.00, with the next payment being due in May 2025 (engineering services/material commitments), and in October 2026 a payment of $2,140,000.00 will be due (final construction/commissioning/closeout).Instead of borrowing the entire amount at once, this agreement will allow the city to draw up to $15 million dollars from the bond, allowing this to be completed in phases as the project moves forward.

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