Jeffersonville Council Approves $20 Million For Canal Project

The Jeffersonville City Council has unanimously approved a $20 million dollar bond issue to support development of the city’s canal project.Jeffersonville is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency to keep its sewers from overflowing. Outgoing Mayor Tom Galligan has proposed options, but Mayor-elect Mike Moore says they’re too expensive and says when he takes over next week he plans on scrapping the plan.But the vote Wednesday night was not necessarily meant to directly support the proposed canal project, said councilman Ed Zastawny.“In the bond ordinance itself it doesn’t say canal, it says conveyance system. So that money can be used for something else. If Mayor Moore comes up with a good idea that everybody can agree to, that money can be used for whatever that idea is,” he said.The city council’s vote acknowledges some form of a plan needs to happen, said Zastawny.“Right now the only agreed to plan is the canal. So we’re going to continue to move forward with the canal unless something changes or the new mayor comes up with a new idea and can convince all the parties that that’s the way to go we plan on continuing to move forward with building a canal,” he said.Moore reportedly says the votes will not affect his decision to scrap the canal and he plans on introducing his supposedly less-expensive plan in late January.