Residents of Delaware County will be voting to extend the School Infrastructure Local Option (SILO) Sales Tax on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

According to PiperJaffray Vice President Matthew R. Gillaspie, Delaware County approved a one-cent sales tax for schools in May of 2003, which began to be collected in January 2004 and will expire on Dec. 31, 2013.

“The tax, under existing law, currently brings in approximately $775,000 per year,” said Gillaspie in an informational letter. “The payments on the existing bonds are approximately $560,000 per year.”

A SILO tax, which is a countywide election, must have a majority of voters in order for the tax to pass. The tax can be used for construction, reconstruction, repair, purchasing, or remodeling of schools, stadiums, gymnasiums, fieldhouses or bus garages. Also, according to the Iowa State code, the tax can be used for payment of “outstanding bonds previously issued for school infrastructure purposes.”

The tax can also be used for property tax relief and demolition work.

“It is the board’s plan to ask for voter approval to issue $5,800,000 in general obligation school bonds to fund the next phase of the building and remodeling project,” said Gillaspie. “We plan to structure the debt repayment such that there is little or no principal being repaid during the remaining life of the current Delaware County SILO.”

The SILO tax automatically expires after 10 years but it can be re-imposed by a vote.

“However, all school local option tax will be automatically repealed as of Dec. 31, 2022,” said the State of Iowa website, www.state.ia.us/tax/educate/78511.html.

The school is reimbursed with a written notice of the monthly estimated payments for the fiscal year. According to the website, 95 percent of the taxes are paid monthly with the final payment being made before Nov. 10 of the next fiscal year. If an overpayment occurred, “a reduction of monthly distributions to reflect the overpayment will begin with the November payment.”

Businesses with a sales tax permit will receive notice of the change, if approved, with a mailed explanation.

The SILO tax is imposed on the same items as the state sales tax except for: “room rentals in a hotel, motel or other similar facility; sales of equipment by the State Department of Transportation; sales of natural gas or electric energy subject to a city – or county – imposed franchise fee or users fee; the sale of direct-to-home satellite pay television service; or self-propelled building equipment, pile drivers, motorized scaffolding, or attachments customarily drown or attached to them, including auxiliary attachments which improve their performance, safety, operation or efficiency and including replacement parts used by contractors, subcontractors and builders for new construction, reconstruction, alterations, expansion or remodeling or real property or structures.”

According to Gillaspie, “principal payments would begin on or about fiscal year 2015, once the prior SILO debt has been retired, and the SILO revenue can be fully dedicated to the abatement of the general obligation school bonds. This does, of course, require the extension by county-wide vote or legislative action of the one-cent tax.”

More on the SILO tax will be published in the Manchester Press in the next couple of weeks.

Work continues on the new Main Street Market grocery store located on the north end of Manchester.

Owners, Don and Kathy McCurdy say the project is moving along very well and that they anticipate opening sometime in the next two weeks.

“We are shooting for September 9th,” said Don McCurdy. “There are still some things that we are waiting on to finish certain areas of the store but all in all it is coming along quite well.”

The new store will occupy 11,500 square feet of space. There will be wide isles and several specialty areas within the store.

Specialty areas will include some home interior decorations, a refrigerated area for birthday and other celebratory cakes as well as an area for other celebration type gifts.

The store will be much like the McCurdy’s current Main Street Market store in Coggon.

The Coggon location has been in operation for seven years.

The new Manchester location will have 40 employees, all from the local area.