BENTON — The Benton City Council passed a resolution dealing with the sewer surcharge and a resolution restricting funds for the wastewater treatment plant debt reduction and infrastructure at Tuesday night’s meeting.

According to City Clerk Brook Craig, in the past, the surcharge was set to only cover debt reduction and now it will be used for seer infrastructure improvements exclusively.

The resolution allows the revenue fund to continue to transfer $55,000 per month to the sewer fund, but now instead of all $55,000 being used for debt reduction, $40,000 a month will go to debt reduction on the wastewater treatment plant and $15,000 a month will be used for sewer infrastructure improvements/repair.

Attorney John Bigler with Bigler Law Office in Anna spoke to the council regarding potential multi-district litigation regarding opioids. The council made the motion to opt out of federal multi-district litigation and employ Khowaja Law, Kralavac, Jambois and Schwartz, and Bigler Law Office to proceed with representing the city of Benton in state multi-district litigation concerning opioids.

In other business, the council voted to allow all council members the option to join the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund if they want, passed an ordinance for Leachate and a contract with Perry Ridge Landfill, gave Zoning Administrator David Garavalia the go ahead to negotiate the purchase of property at 202 E. Main, changed the meeting time for the Dec. 23 City Council meeting to 4 p.m., approved office hours at City Hall to run from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a 30 minute lunch starting Dec. 1, and recognizing Nov. 18-22 as National Apprenticeship Awareness and Appreciation Week.