Section NR 166.17 - Amendments to a financial assistance agreement(1) ADDITIONAL FUNDING. (a)General.1. 'Additional assistance at end of project.' The department may issue an amendment to a financial assistance agreement to provide additional financial assistance for eligible project costs incurred beyond the amount specified in the original financial assistance agreement. The department may process a request to provide additional financial assistance for a project only after the total remaining costs to complete the project can be reasonably determined.2. 'Consistent with scope.' To be eligible for additional financial assistance, any changes in the project necessitating the amendment must be consistent with the objectives and scope of the project as described in the original financial assistance agreement. Changes that necessitate an amendment must be due to unforeseen circumstances or approvable change orders to a project construction contract.3. 'Plans and specifications approval.' If there are changes in the project that require department approval of plans and specifications, the municipality shall obtain department approval prior to the amendment loan closing.4. 'New financial assistance agreement.' An amendment shall be in the form of a new financial assistance agreement tied to the original project through the budget and project description. The department and the DOA shall determine the appropriate interest rate for the amendment based on the market interest rate in effect on the date of the municipality's meeting at which they pass the related bond resolution.5. 'Debt coverage requirements.' The municipality must meet debt coverage requirements for the additional financial assistance.(b)Applicability. Additional financial assistance under par. (a) for a scored project is subject to all of the following: 1. 'Availability of funds.' If there are sufficient loan funds available, as determined under s. 281.59, Stats., a municipality may receive loan funds for additional project costs incurred that cause the total eligible project costs to be greater than the amount provided in the original financial assistance agreement. The loan interest rate and loan maturity date shall be determined by the department and DOA.2. 'No principal forgiveness.' The department may not provide additional principal forgiveness funds in the amendment to the financial assistance agreement.(c)Requesting funds. A municipality may request financial assistance for additional project costs using one of the following options:1. 'Request in writing.' The municipality shall submit a written request to the department that justifies the need for additional financial assistance and details the additional eligible costs. A revised budget shall be submitted with the request indicating in one column the line-item totals in the financial assistance agreement, in a second column the requested additional costs, and in a third column the total project costs requested to be funded through the SDWLP via an amendment to the original financial assistance agreement. If there are other funding sources participating in the project, the revised budget shall indicate all funding changes applicable to the additional financial assistance being requested. All costs in the revised budget shall be assigned to the appropriate budget line items from which disbursement will be requested.2. 'Electronic submittal.' The department may require the written request for an amendment to be submitted as an email message with an attachment, as input into the department's online application system, or by other appropriate means determined by the department.(d)Plans and specifications. A municipality shall submit to the department any plans and specifications required for changes in the project that necessitate the amendment to the financial assistance agreement. The department shall issue an amendment for the additional project costs only after the department approves any engineering reports or plans and specifications required for the work related to the additional costs.(e)Notice of intent to apply. A new notice of intent to apply for funding as described under s. NR 166.08 (1) is not required for purposes of requesting a financial assistance agreement amendment.(2) EFFECTIVE DATE. A financial assistance agreement amendment is effective when executed by all parties to the agreement.Wis. Admin. Code Department of Natural Resources NR 166.17
CR 06-023: cr. Register May 2007 No. 617, eff. 6-1-07; CR 09-073: am. (2) Register November 2010 No. 659, eff. 12-1-10.Amended by, CR 14-044: cr. Register June 2015 No. 714, eff.7/1/2015.Adopted by, CR 22-068: cr. Register October 2023 No. 814, eff. 11/1/2023