Wednesday, August 29, 2001
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Wednesday, August 29, 2001 |
| Regional
water plan to impose high cost here?
By DAVE HAMRICK
Will Fayette County taxpayers and water service customers be forced to pay part of the cost of rebuilding the city of Atlanta's antiquated and dilapidated sewer system? "Somebody's going to have to rebuild that," County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn told his fellow commissioners last week, and if the governor's new Metropolitan North Georgia Regional Planning District board decides Fayette has to help, "the big stick is not in our hands," he said. Gov. Roy Barnes pushed creation of the board through the state Legislature last year, saying the board is needed to help plan regional solutions to the Atlanta region's water supply and quality problems. "I think he's lost his damned mind," said Commissioner Herb Frady as the group discussed the governor's plans. As a relatively small player, Fayette will have to go along with whatever regional projects the board deems necessary, and may have to help bear the cost, he said. Dunn's remarks came in the aftermath of the first big battle on the new board, over how much each county would be charged in dues as forced members of the organization. Commissioners held their noses and unanimously approved payment of $73,000 to the group to fund its administrative costs and pay for consultants who will study the region's water problems and propose solutions. "This is an unfunded mandate," said Commissioner Linda Wells, but the county can't fight it, she said. "If we don't play, we'll really get sent up the river," she said. Dunn said "a state employee" threatened to put counties' water withdrawal permits in jeopardy if they don't cooperate, adding that when he checked the wording of the law creating the board, he found that those threats were well-founded. Originally, the board's staff had proposed a formula for dues that had Fayette paying $106,655, but Dunn and representatives of several other counties dug in their heels and got voted as a block to get the amounts reduced, effectively reducing the board's budget. When he originally proposed the board, Barnes offered $1 million from the state to help fund it, and suggested the member counties pay another $1 million, but the staff submitted a budget of $5 million, Dunn said. The group found some grant money to fund part of the budget, and then cut the budget by $800,000 to get the dues reduced a little more. But all of that is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of funding the projects that the board's consultants are likely to propose, said Dunn. "When the plans are done, they'll give birth to projects. Who and how we're going to pay for them is anybody's guess," he added. He also reiterated the frustration of local officials, saying that Fayette has both conserved water and planned ahead to avoid the problems that other counties are facing, and now the county may be forced to pay for others' negligence. "We have about the best-performing water system in the state," he said. "We've done the things that the governor is trying to make everybody else do."
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