On Monday, Buhl successfully sold the $23 million in bonds to pay for building an $8 million arsenic treatment facility and $15 million wastewater system overhaul.

"We are relieved," said Mayor Charles Sheridan. "We won't have the money in hand until the deal closes in mid-November but we got them on the market and they were all sold on the first day they hit the market. We need the money in order to move forward with our projects."

The city is responsible for an annual repayment of about $1.5 million for 30 years and base rate increases for monthly sewer and water service, to $62.50 and $35 respectively, were needed to guarantee the repayment.

While the bonds were originally planned to hit the market Oct. 8 conditions on the bond market led officials to postpone the initial offering.

"There really weren't any buyers out there," said Bill Jerrell, vice president of Seattle Northwest Securities, who sold the bonds on behalf of the city.

The city will pay 5.33 percent on the bonds, lower than the 5.75 percent maximum interest allowable by the city, said Buhl's City Engineer Scott Bybee.

"It was a good idea to hold off on selling the bonds and we ended up getting an acceptable interest rate," Bybee said.

The arsenic treatment is needed because Buhl is out of compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency's 2005 mandate that potable water systems must have no more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic, down from 50 ppb. The city's arsenic fluctuates from 3 to 23 ppb.

The new sewer system will bring the city into compliance with the new Middle Snake Nutrient Manage-ment Plan and the city's National Pollution Dis-charge Elimination System permit going into effect on Jan. 1, 2010.

Blair Koch may be reached at 208-316-2607 or blairkoch@gmail.com.