VALLEY GRANDE — The City of Valley Grande has big plans for the $36,000 in oil lease money they received earlier this month.

Mayor Wayne Labbe and members of the Valley Grande City Council are hoping they can put that money toward paying off a portion of the amount the city owes on an 80-acre piece of land that is home to the city’s sports complex.

The city received the $36,000 as their portion of the oil lease money handed out to communities across the state annually by the Alabama Trust Fund.

The money can only be used for capital improvement projects, and Labbe said he is hoping using it to pay off the money owed on the city-owned property falls within those guidelines.

“They tag this money to be used on capital projects only. We can’t pay wages with it, we can’t pay light bills with it. It can’t pay anything with it,” Labbe said. “Our thinking is we can use it because this land, in our opinion, is a capital project.”

With $140,000 currently owed on the land, Labbe has said is hoping to pay $40,000 and finance the remaining $100,000.

Labbe said he hopes to find out in the coming days if the oil lease money can be used to pay off the amount currently owed on the property.

“It will take some research,” Labbe said. “We have to check with the state about it this week.”

Labbe said he is hoping to take out a $100,000 loan from a local bank, which the city would pay back with monthly installments over the next three years.

“We are almost down to financing the last $100,000, and one of the goals of this council is to have the city out of debt at the end of our term which is two years from October,” Labbe said. “If we get down close enough to the end of our term and we see we won’t be able to have it paid off by paying extra principal, we can go ahead and pay it off at any time, depending on the financial stability of the city.”