Butler soon could receive more than $100 million from the sale of Butler Area Sewer Authority to Pennsylvania American Water Company, and financial advisers from NexTier Wealth Management said that money could change the city.

NexTier representatives talked to Butler City Council on Thursday, March 23, about how Butler officials could make the most of its half of the pending $231.5 million sale of BASA, which is now being evaluated by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission.

Will Baker, an adviser with NexTier, said the city could allocate the money into three categories, which are current, core and strategic.

An example of current costs include the streetscape project and city parking, which the city has been working on updating for years.

“Those are going to happen pretty soon, we need to have those funds available for your expenses,” Baker said.

Baker said core projects could be used on ongoing projects, such as housing and street paving costs, which could pay off for the city in the future.

“That would be another example of we need to have some money now, but we also want to grow this down the road,” Baker said.

The strategic category is the long-range obligation costs the city has, including pension plans, bond payments and municipal costs. With strategic plans in place for some of the money, Baker said advisers with NexTier will meet regularly with city officials so they can update their plan as needed.

Mayor Bob Dandoy said the money will give the city some wiggle room when planning future budgets, which is, itself, a benefit.

“Those are the things that relieve that pressure in the budget, and we still hope in perpetuity that down the road people are still enjoying the fruits of that labor,” Dandoy said. “The right investments will bring great positive growth to our city.”

Dandoy said the city also will hear from three additional financial advisers, including PNC Financial Services, Edward Jones and Baird Private Wealth Management. Following the rest of the presentations, council likely will vote to hire one, or more, of the advisers to help the city manage the money, the mayor said.

Council voted to pay VHC Vantine Heating & Cooling $5,750 to replace the heating system in the city’s parks department building. Councilman Dan Herr said the heating system in the building recently broke and could not be replaced, so the city is spending the money as an emergency expense.

Work should be completed next week, according to Councilman Don Shearer.

“It can’t be repaired, so this will replace the overhead units,” Herr said. “As far as an exact time, it’s unclear but it will be really quick.”