The Knoxville City Council approved entering into a loan agreement for the remaining funding for the new public safety/city hall building.

The total cost of the project is $17.5 million, and in October the city entered into a $16 Million loan agreement for the bonds that will be paid for by local option sales tax, so it will have no impact on tax payers. The city will also pay $1 million cash for the project but the final cost came in roughly $500,000 higher than they anticipated, so on Monday, the council approved the final $500,000 loan agreement, which was combined with another loan agreement for the streets improvement project. City Manager Heather Ussery says the city is also exploring other options of how to pay down the cost faster.

“Also recently at the end of February we submitted an application with the Prairie Meadows Legacy Grant which is up to a million dollars for the project so if we were to be awarded that it would just allow the city to replenish the million in cash that we did or pay down the debt overall quicker than we expected.”

The new building will be off Highway 14 at the site of the former Knoxville Middle School. Soil exploration at the site is being done this week and groundbreaking is expected this spring.