ESCANABA – Escanaba Green Energy received the terms Tuesday from its lender to borrow $36.5 million to buy and renovate the Escanaba Power Plant, according to the company’s president.

Charles Detiege told the Escanaba Electrical Advisory Committee and city council last night that they still need to clarify the terms which they plan to do on Friday. Then a long awaited signing date could be set.

“The terms right now are acceptable. We don’t have any major issues with them,” Detiege said, “but we do have about six items that we need clarification from them on how they are written. Once we get them resolved and we get it written the way we think it should be written we will sign on the dotted line and come back and give you guys a closing date.”

The sale could be finalized as early as the first week in October. Escanaba Green Energy is purchasing the plant for $1.6 million. They plan to use it as a biomass facility.

Detiege said they have everything in place to move quickly once the details of the loan are set.

“We already have Delta Abstract and Title keyed up. We have Baybank keyed up. We have Garceau Wenick-Kutz Magowan Insurance keyed up. I have our health insurance keyed up. We have everyone ready to go,” Detiege said.

Detiege expects everything to move within seven days of securing the money.

Escanaba City Manager Jim O’Toole is not so sure the process can move as fast as Detiege hopes because there are things the city needs to do once the sale is finalized.

“When we receive notice that the money is on hand and ready to be exchanged, we have our attorney ready to do the implementation that needs to be done. We’ll do it as quickly as it can be done. I’m not as optimistic as Charles. We can’t make any notifications until the transfer is done,” he said.

The sale has to be approved by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator or MISO. The Midwest power grid operator is currently paying the city of Escanaba to generate power at the plant.

O’Toole says they plan to have a conference call next week to coordinate the process of the sale.