A vote to move forward with the final round of funding for a Palmerton Area School District addition and renovation project could come later this month.

At a school board workshop Tuesday night, Zach Williard, of Public Financial Management laid out several financing options using $10 million as the amount to be borrowed.The money would go toward a 13,420-square-foot addition to the existing Palmerton Junior High School building, and renovation to the track and football field with a synthetic turf and drainage system, among other improvements.Palmerton previously borrowed $9.6 million and plans on using $6 million from its capital reserve funds to help pay for the project.A main option unveiled by Williard on Tuesday would have the $10 million borrowed paid back over 19 years."Right now your annual debt service payment is $1.8 million and this would take it to $2.18 million," Williard told the board.Another option would be extending the maturity date of the upcoming borrowing by one year. While it would result in slightly less of an annual payment, it would add $750,000 in interest, Williard explained."Interest rates right now are very low, even lower than last fall," he said. "At some point they'll go up, but right now they keep going down and that is good news for the borrower."If the board votes to authorize PFM to move forward with paperwork in preparation for the financing, it would not lock the district to an amount to be borrowed."I'd like to discuss leaving a few things out of the project unless we're set that this is going to be $10 million," board member Susan Debski said. "Right now it looks like we'd be burning a mill of taxes every year just on the extra debt service."After five years, Palmerton could begin to pay the loan off in larger chunks.Board member Charles Gildner pointed out that the district has "planned for the worst" at budget time but not used all the money, allowing it to put $2 million into its fund balance at the end of the last two fiscal years."We will learn from the audit whether we can put money back into the fund balance that could offset some of this $10 million," Superintendent Scot Engler said. "It could be $1-$2 million if we're lucky."Should the district move forward, Williard said PFM would look to lock in an interest rate before Thanksgiving and Palmerton would likely have its money before the end of the year.