URBANA — The city council this week will discuss a partnership with Mervis Industries to open a regional recycling center on the northern edge of the city.

The prospect of a recycling center at that location is not new — the city council in 2009 granted Mervis Industries permission to build the facility to be located at 3008 N. Cunningham Ave.

But now city officials plan to leverage state grant money to assist the company in completing Cunningham Avenue road improvements necessary to open the facility.

The council will discuss the funding when it meets as the committee of the whole on Monday (today, Jan. 9) at 7 p.m. in the Urbana City Building, 400 S. Vine St.

According to city documents, the $1.5 million project would require the developer to complete several hundred thousand dollars' worth of road improvements, a job for which Mervis Industries requested the city's help.

In response, the city applied for a state grant and was notified in November that the Illinois Department of Transportation would fund 75 percent of the road project, up to $326,080.

Officials expect that the city will act only as a conduit for the money, and Mervis Industries is expected to pay for anything the state grant does not.

But to do so, the city council would have to sign off on a number of ordinances and contracts.

Council members are scheduled to review and possibly cast a preliminary vote on the agreement tonight.

They would have to give their final approval at a subsequent meeting.