Morgan County Commissioners approved a settlement agreement with the Ameren Meredosia Power Plant at this morning’s board meeting.
The Meredosia Power Station was one of two Ameren plants that were forced to close in October of 2011. Now, Ameren has proposed a ten-year reduction plan for the Meredosia building.
Morgan County Commissioners’ Chairperson Ginny Fanning explains what Ameren’s proposal entails and how the reduction process will work.
“Ameren came to us with a proposal of taking a percentage each year over the next ten years to reduce their building assessed value. We have been in touch with the other six taxing districts who will be impacted by this agreement. Next year it will be a 20% reduction, the following year it will be 33%, and the rest of the term it will be 50% reduction until 2025,” says Fanning.
The six entities that the will be effected by this proposal include: the Meredosia Fire District, John Wood Community College, Morgan County River Valley Library District, Meredosia-Bluffs Rescue Squad, Road District #5 and Meredosia-Chambersburg Unit School District. Fanning says the school district will feel the biggest impact.
“If the assessed value is reduced $100,000, we are required to let those taxing bodies know that this is going to take place. This was a much larger reduction and because of that, we reached out to the school district and visited with them because they’ll be the ones that will be impacted the most because of the reduction,” says Fanning.
Fanning says Ameren hopes to eventually turn the space into an industrial area for future businesses.
Also at this morning’s meeting, the board approved a compensation resolution for highway commissioners and district clerks.