DOVER — The city is asking a court to give its blessing to a plan to incur debt in order to bankroll improvements to its municipal water system.

The city argues in its petition for judicial confirmation that the expense is ordinary and necessary, and therefore exempt from a state constitution prohibition against indebtedness beyond a single fiscal year.

If a 1st District Court judge agrees, the city would gain access to a $194,062 Idaho Department of Water Resources loan to pay for the improvements. The loan has a 6-percent interest rate and a 10- to 20-year payback period.

The city petitioned for judicial confirmation on May 30, according to court documents.

The city seeks to extend a water intake line into the deepest part of the Pend Oreille River and make other enhancements in order to improve water quantity and quality for its residents.

After a decade of boiling its drinking water, the city developed a slow-sand water filtration system in 1990 to treat surface water drawn from the Pend Oreille. But fluctuating lake levels and turbidity have rendered the intake system obsolete, which is affecting water supply and quality, the city said in court documents.

The Idaho Constitution bars local governments from creating indebtedness which exceed its current year’s revenues, although the prohibition can be sidestepped if a court rules that the expense is ordinary and necessary.