BOISE – The central Idaho vacation town of McCall is hoping to stave off a reputation-bruising bankruptcy with a plan to start paying off $6.2 million it owes construction and insurance companies that built and financed a lawsuit-plagued wastewater treatment plant.

The city still plans to appeal the federal judgment against it in the case, Mayor Bill Robertson told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

In a closed-door executive session Tuesday night, the City Council drew up a plan to use a $300,000 budget surplus to start payments to St. Clair Contractors Inc., based in Boise. The plan also calls for borrowing $600,000, the maximum under Idaho law, to be repaid from next year’s property tax receipts.

McCall would also ask a judge to allow it to raise property taxes to pay off the balance of the judgment over time.