An expansion of county water services in the Neese area is progressing quickly.
As of June 21, Griffin Brothers, which was hired by the county industrial development authority (IDA) to install water lines in southwest Madison County, had installed a water line from Hwy. 106, up Neese-Commerce Road to Minish Road, about a mile shy of Hwy. 98.
That line will be extended to Hwy. 98 and then west to the county line, where the system will be tied to the Commerce water line.
Griffin Brothers was hired in May for $1,563,938, the lowest of 16 bids for the county water service expansion. The project includes installing water lines down Neese Diamond Hill Road, across Hwy. 106 South, then down Neese Commerce Road to Hwy. 98 West to the county line. Water lines are also being extended from Neese-Diamond Hill Road down Hwy. 29 South to Bryant Drive. This project includes 67,000 feet of pipe.
The industrial authority was awarded a $2.14 million grant/loan for the project from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority.
County utility director Steve Shaw told the industrial authority Junee 21 that 25 people have signed up for water service from the new lines. He anticipated that the line will be tied to Commerce at the county line on Hwy. 98 sometime in the next three weeks.
Residents in the area who would like to get on the new sections of county water line should call the IDA and water department office at 706-795-9865, or come by. Residents in that area can sign up for water service during construction with a reduced tap and meter fee of $900. Normal tap and meter fees are $1,550.
The grant/loan package also includes funds for the IDA to purchase water lines owned by Commerce along Blacks Creek Church Road that now serve 48 water customers.
In other matters, the authority heard from county engineer Phil Munro, who provided an overview of a recently completed watershed assessment report of the area around the commercial sewer system in the Dogsboro area at the Hwy. 29-Glenn Carrie Road intersection. The report is required by the Environmental Protection Division. The county must follow that report with a watershed protection plan, currently being drafted at the University of Georgia. That protection plan will ultimately be approved by the county commissioners, not the industrial authority. Commercial development is anticipated around the new sewer treatment plant. And the watershed protection measures are required to help keep creeks and streams in the area from being negatively impacted, both in terms of water quality and wildlife. Munro said the watershed protection plan will need to be approved by early September.
Also June 21 Shaw reported that 750 water customers were billed for roughly six million gallons of water usage over the past month, a one-million-gallon increase over the previous month.
