(BENTON, IL) — The Benton City Council Monday night approved a bid of around $14 million from River City Construction of Benton for construction of the city’s long-awaited new sewer plant. A total of seven bids were received with River City’s being the lowest. The next step in this process will be for the city to send the conditional bid award to the Illinois EPA for review, which is expected to take about 90 days. Once it’s approved, the city can ratify construction agreements. Work on the new sewer plant is estimated to start in October with it being finished by January of 2018. It will be located across from the current facility on Petroff Road. The city is paying for the project using federal grants. The first loan payment to the EPA won’t be made until January of 2019. City leaders also approved setting aside $20,000 per month in restricted funds toward the sewer plant. The city had previously set aside $55,000 a month for the project.