Council likely to OK $10 million loan for institute

BYLINE: Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.

Nov. 13--Austin City Council and Austin Port Authority members plan to meet tonight on whether to officially approve the sale of $10 million in bonds for the Hormel Institute's major expansion.

Through the bond sale, the city would provide a low-interest loan to the Hormel Foundation, the cancer-research facility's largest financial supporter. The foundation then would repay the money to the Port Authority, the city's economic-development branch.

At today's meeting, the council and Port Authority are expected to take separate votes on the bonds as the final step of the process. The council will need to adopt an ordinance.

A few weeks ago, the Mower County Board approved a low-interest, $5 million loan for expansion of the northeast Austin institute, part of the University of Minnesota. The five-year loan at a 2 percent interest requires the institute to create at least 25 new, high quality jobs by 2008.

Institute officials have estimated that at least 100 quality jobs would be created by the expansion, more than doubling current staff levels.

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