Sunrise Coal LLC has agreed to cover the village of Homer's expenses in hiring a special attorney and engineer to determine whether it's legal for the Champaign County municipality to sell water to the coal company.

In front of an audience of more than 100 people that spilled out into the entryway of the village hall, the Homer Village Board and Sunrise Coal officials agreed Wednesday night that Sunrise will deposit USD 50,000 in an account that the village can draw on to pay for an attorney to do the legal research to determine whether it can sell water to Sunrise. The account would also cover the cost of an engineer that would serve as a technical adviser to the attorney.

The village board voted 4-2 to authorize the mayor and village attorney to seek an engineer and special legal counsel who can do the legal research. The mayor and village attorney will have the Sunrise account at its disposal to pay those costs, and Sunrise officials asked that it be notified prior to withdrawals being made.

Sunrise Coal, based in Terre Haute, Ind has asked Homer to supply water to its proposed Bulldog coal mine, an underground mine across the border in Vermilion County. Homer is considering the request for hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw water in addition to potable water and sewer services, which Sunrise would pay the village to provide on an annual basis.

The village's attorney, Mr Paul Hendren, advised the board night that this type of request requires an attorney who specializes in agreements between municipalities and utilities. He said there are strong legal opinions on both sides of the issue. He also advised board members that they should seek reimbursement of the costs of the special attorney and engineer so the village doesn't incur costs before it even determines whether it will sell water to the coal company.

Sunrise's attorney, Mr Lee Alan, told board members that the coal company understands the village does not have the financial resources to pay to research legal issues, so Sunrise is more than willing to pay all the village's costs up front.

Mr Alan said he has done the legal research and thinks the village does have the legal authority to sell the water to Sunrise. He suggested creating an account to pay the costs up front in the interest of moving this process forward quickly.

Mr Alan said that "We think long-term this would be beneficial to the village.” He told the board that it's not the company's intent to deplete wells or the village's water supply and if studies show that it's not possible to fill the request, the company will move on to its secondary plan for providing the mine with raw water. He said the request for raw water is separate from the request that Homer also provide a much smaller amount of potable water and sewer services.

Source - www.news-gazette.com

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