Who holds power new city issue

Rufus Adair

Control of long-term future developments – water rates, money for maintenance, and where lines go – emerged at Monday evening's Eatonton City Council meeting as a question requiring "more information."

The council is deciding on a proposal for Piedmont Water Company to run the Eatonton-Putnam Water and Sewer Authority's assets in the Sinclair area and perhaps inside the city as well.

The council also approved, pending the signing of a formal contract with Attaway Recycling, the beginnings of a recycling program.

On Nov. 1, residents may take recyclables to the Glenwood Springs Road recycling center.

Recyclables include newspapers, corrugated cardboard, "gray" (not slick or coated) cardboard, clear glass, green glass, brown glass, and types 1 and 2 plastics (as indicated in the triangles on the bottoms of most plastic containers).

After a lengthy discussion, the City Council asked for "more information" before it would decide if the proposed deal between EPWSA and Piedmont Water fits the city's long-term needs. .

"One of my concerns is control," commented Ward 4 council member Theresa Doster, who led most of the early questioning.

If the city managed its former water and sewer assets according to the proposal, would the city have access to the revenues from billings, she asked.

"We would run it like we owned it, but we wouldn't own it," said Mayor John Reid said. "If we got to the point where we needed something, we would have to go back to EPWSA."

"Any time you set up a new business, you know it is not going to make a profit the first year," said council member Anthony Gorley.
"I understand the community is upset about rates, but if we come together ... We are setting up a gold mine. We really need to think closely before we give the system away."

In the end, Doster said, "I'd like to see more details. I'd like to see a plan (from EPWSA) about how to add more customers, how they could get in the black."

"We need to get in front so we can chart our own course," concluded Mayor John Reid, who also serves this year as EPWSA's vice chairman.

"There hasn't been a long enough time in my estimation," said Doster.

"Of course, the risk is that we would not have the right personnel to grow the system and the rates would stay high."

Last winter's public outcry against the tripled water-and-sewer rates inside the city triggered the late spring proposal hammered out between EPWSA (and county commission) chairman Tom Thompson and Piedmont president Jerry Shaifer.

The selling point was that adding Piedmont's 2,900 customers in the Lake Oconee/northern Putnam area to EPWSA's 4,500 would havemore people helping to pay off EPWSA's debts and thus lower the cost of water.

Further, Piedmont would be responsible for paying about $21 million in EPWSA debts over 20 years and would keep any line expansions further than 1,500 feet from existing lines.

The proposal would freeze rates for three years, then have a 4.5 percent annual cap.

Speaking briefly before the council, Thompson said Shaifer had agreed just that afternoon for Piedmont to manage the city's former water and sewer systems, but still preferred that the city manage them.

In a point only lightly mentioned later, Thompson also noted that if EPWSA failed or was dissolved, the city and county would be equally responsible for the $21 million debt. (The city had carried just $1.5 million in long-term debt into the EPWSA arrangement.)

In a summary of "talking points" from an Oct. 1 conversation among himself, Reid, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development specialist Kathy Ross, City Administrator Dan Elmore noted that bond attorneys for those holding EPWSA's debt would have a large say-so in any change to EPWSA's current structure.

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