Wednesday, December 20, 2000
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Wednesday, December 20, 2000 |
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County wells drying up By DAVE
HAMRICK Dry weather over the last three years has taken its toll on local wells. "We've picked up a bunch of customers where wells went dry," confirmed Fayette County Water System director Tony Parrott. "There have been more this year than in the past." In emergency situations in which wells dry up in areas where county water is not available, the Water System offers a deal. The customers pay the cost of running water lines to their homes that would be adequate to serve only those homes, and the Water System picks up the cost of making those lines large enough to serve future customers beyond the trouble spot. The Water Committee last Wednesday voted to recommend a $283,485 contract to run new water lines to six areas of the county where such problems are occurring, and the County Commission Thursday approved the plan. Water will go to homes on Morris Drive with 15 homeowners participating in the cost. On Janice Drive, 13 customers are chipping in, one of them currently having to bring in bottled water. One customer in each case is bearing the cost to extend lines on Ga. Highway 74 south, Dogwood Trail and Ellison Road, and two customers are sharing the cost on Green Valley Drive. All of the projects together will add 9,700 feet of water line to the system. Additional costs to increase the size of the Hwy. 74 line from two inches, all that's needed to serve the drought-stricken customer, to 20 inches to serve future customers will be born by the Water System, along with other upgrades. One further cost, placing fire hydrants along the new water lines, will be paid by the county Fire Department. Ordinarily, the Water Committee would not have put the contract to extend the lines on a County Commission agenda just one day after the committee's meeting, but in this case the project needed to be on the fast track, said Parrott. "All six of these water lines will serve people who have little or no water," he told the committee. "In some cases they're toting water, so we're trying to get these lines installed." In a separate project, the Water Committee is recommending the county accept a $4,800 bid to run water lines up Ga. Highway 314. That project was originally combined with a plan to run lines along Ga. Highway 138 as well, picking up customers currently served by the Clayton County Water System, but requirements of the Georgia Department of Transportation ran the cost of those lines higher than expected. The Water Committee will rebid that portion of the project later.
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