Girls Inc., a Sioux City nonprofit providing programs encouraging girls to develop self-esteem and productive life goals, officially received a helping hand from Plymouth County last week.

The Plymouth County Supervisors, after a public hearing, unanimously approved allowing Girls Inc. to pass $4.3 million in bonds through the county. The money will help Girls Inc. build a new activity center in Sioux City.

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The county is in no way responsible for any payment or liability for these bonds.

"These bonds are not debt of the county," said Dave Grossklaus, serving as Girls Inc.'s attorney on this matter. "These bonds will be solely paid from revenues and funds of Girls Inc."

Girls Inc. is passing the bonds through Plymouth County for the purpose of accessing tax-exempt bonds.

"The internal revenue code requires for bonds to be tax exempt that they actually be issued by a governmental entity," Grossklaus said.

A bank will hold the bonds and Girls Inc. will pay directly on the bonds to that bank.

"There isn't money that flows into a Plymouth County account. There's no check writing by Plymouth County at all," Grossklaus said.

Plymouth County will charge Girls Inc. a $1,500 administrative fee to issue the bonds for items like advertising costs for the public hearing and bookkeeping services. That number was set at an October meeting when Girls Inc. discussed the idea with the supervisors.

The supervisors agreed that will be a flat fee for anyone with future requests.

The bonds for Girls Inc. will also be "bank qualified" bonds, which banks can purchase and take an interest deduction.

"It gives them a lot better rate," said Supervisor Chairman John Schneider.

The county supervisors can designate up to $10 million in bank qualified bonds each year.

The Girls Inc. project would use some of the county's capacity for these bonds for 2008.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, that capacity returns to $10 million.

When Girls Inc. representatives first asked the county supervisors to consider being a pass-through for the bonds, they said the bonds would be about $5 million.

Last week, they lowered that amount by $700,000.

"Girls Inc. now has a little better understanding of how much exactly they're going to borrow," Grossklaus said. "I didn't want to have the county designating more bank qualified (bonds) than what we really needed."

Girls Inc. provides after school and summer programs to girls age 6-18.

The proposed 25,000-square-foot facility will be in Cook Park, at West Sixth and Main Street, in Sioux City. Engel-Cartie said that land has already been leased from the city for $1 a year.

Locating Girls Inc. in that spot will give Girls Inc. participants access to other activities already there like a swimming pool, lighted tennis and basketball courts, a softball field and outdoor learning areas. The new facility will also double the size of the current center.

The center has more than 200 girls enrolled -- several from Plymouth County -- and 86 girls on a waiting list for its summer program. Last year Girls Inc. had to turn away 102 girls because of space issues.