KeyBank will lend the Butler County Infrastructure Bank $24 million, which will in turn be lent to five municipal organizations for various projects.

The county commissioners recently approved the bid by KeyBank, which will lend the infrastructure bank the funds at an interest rate of 1.707%.

The infrastructure bank will only charge their loan recipients an interest rate of 0.56% and subsidize the remaining amount.

Most municipalities and authorities approved for low-interest loans in the three years of the infrastructure bank's existence could not have completed their projects without the assistance and low interest rates offered by the infrastructure bank.

“It's a really good thing and pretty unique to Butler County,” said Mark Gordon, the county chief of economic development and planning.

Gordon, with three current county commissioners, instituted the infrastructure bank to give the county's municipalities and authorities an opportunity to complete infrastructure projects they would not otherwise be able to afford.

In addition to low-interest loans, the municipalities and authorities approved for infrastructure bank funding can access assistance from various county departments and the county Community Development Corporation in completing their project transactions.

The latest entities approved for 10-year infrastructure bank loans are Western Butler County Authority at $10.6 million for an upgrade to the Harmony pump station; Butler Township at $6.5 million for a new recreation facility in Pullman Park; Water Authority of Adams Township at $5.5 million for the Route 8 water line extension; Prospect borough at $400,000 for a culvert replacement; and Chicora Borough Sewer Authority at $245,000 for repair of a holding tank at the treatment plant.

Gordon said all municipalities and other entities to receive loans from the infrastructure bank in the past three years are current on their loan payments.