DALTON, Ga. — Dalton Utilities is looking at borrowing up to $100 million to fund scheduled maintenance and improvement of its electrical generation, transmission and distribution systems.

The board of the utility voted Monday on a resolution supporting the concept of a bond issue. The vote does not commit the utility to borrowing money. That will take separate action.

“”We are not saying we will definitely issue bonds,” said Dalton Utilities CEO Tom Bundros.

But Bundros told board members the work will have to be paid for from the utility’s internal funds without a bond issue.

Bundros said during the next three years the utility will have to spend about $18.2 million on rehabilitation and modernization of existing generation facilities. Some $3.9 million would fund new transmission assets, and $54 million would pay for rehabilitation and modernization of existing transmission facilities. About $17 million would go to new distribution assets, and $10.5 million would go to rehabilitation and modernization of existing distribution.

Bundros said the utility is contractually obligated to all of the planned spending on generation and transmission. It is a co-owner of those assets with Georgia Power, MEAG (the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia) and Oglethorpe Power.

Board Chairman Joe Yarbrough asked if any of that $100 million would go to new spending on the two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle, which Dalton Utilities is also a part-owner of. Bundros said it would not. That project is about five years behind schedule and according to some published news reports approximately $11 billion over its original budget.

Bundros said the utility will once again next year ask the legislature to approve a law that would allow Dalton Utilities to borrow money for electric assets without a voter referendum, just as it does for water, wastewater and natural gas. He said if the law doesn’t pass the utility will not ask for a bond package that would require voter approval.

“I don’t want to go down that path,” Bundros said. “You are talking about an expense to the taxpayers to hold an election. It’s a difficult issue to explain, and it would probably get tangled up with the Vogtle project. I don’t think that would be good for the community or the Vogtle project.”

Yarbrough noted that if the law does pass any bond packages would have to be approved by the utility’s board, by the City Council and by a Superior Court judge.

Bundros briefed City Council members on the resolution at their meeting Monday night. Council member Denise Wood asked if taxpayers would incur any liabilities if the utility asks for a bond. Bundros said they would not as the bonds would be repaid from Dalton Utilities’ revenue.

Council member Gary Crews, who is the council’s liaison to Dalton Utilities, noted that the utility’s generation and transmission assets make money for the utility. Bundros replied that the revenue generated by those assets would more than repay the costs of the bonds.

Council members said they will vote on supporting the concept of a bond package at a future meeting.