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To qualify for additional stimulus funding, the Edwardsville City Council voted Monday to designate the city a recovery zone.

To be a recovery zone, the council acknowledged the city is suffering from significant poverty, has seen increases in unemployment and home foreclosures and decreases in the assessed valuation of property. Given the current economic times, the council felt it qualified.

Scott Anderson, the city’s bond counsel with Kutak Rock LLP Attorneys, said the approved designation would now allow the city to go after tax-exempt bonds for both governmental and private projects from money that was set aside in the Stimulus Act.

“A new business at 98th and Woodend has requested industrial revenue bonds for a significant project,” Anderson said of the reason the issue was brought before the council. “(The developer) would benefit through a fair amount of interest rate savings.”

While the city did not receive any allocations for the recovery zone bonds, the county received an amount and has set aside $889,000 for Edwardsville. The developer of the 98th Street and Woodend Road project has asked the city to request that amount from the county for the project, as well as go after a portion of an additional $29 million of allocations that the state has available.

Anderson said a lot of other cities in Kansas and Missouri have also been designated as a recovery zone in an effort to receive the tax-exempt bonds. In addition, city administrator Michael Webb added, Wyandotte County as a whole has been designated a recovery zone, but the city must do the same to receive specific funds.

The recovery zone ordinance passed, 3-0, with Craig Crider and John Eickhoff absent.

The next step will be for the city to submit applications to the county and state requesting an amount of the allocation.

In other business, the council:

• Approved, 3-0, minutes from the Nov. 9 meeting.

• Approved, 3-0, payment of bills totaling $112,090.70.

• Heard a presentation by Chris Slaughter, manager of the Unified Government Land Bank Division, regarding the organization’s involvement with delinquent tax properties. Slaughter said the Land Bank’s goal was to get tax delinquent properties back on the tax roll by acquiring them from the county and selling them to qualified buyers.

• Entered into executive session concerning potential litigation and non-elected personnel.

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