Friday, September 6, 2002
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Friday, September 6, 2002 |
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WASA opens new complex on Hwy. 74 south By JOHN
MUNFORD
The administrative, maintenance and laboratory functions of Peachtree City's Water and Sewer Authority are now all under one roof. WASA moved into its new facility on Ga. Highway 74 south adjacent to the Rockaway sewer treatment plant over three weeks ago. The $1.2 million building contains a lab three times the size of its previous facility, said WASA General Manager Larry Turner. The lab has a separate entrance for workers to bring in samples, with a special driveway leading to that entrance, Turner pointed out. Like the lab, the rest of the facility was built with the goal of handling all of WASA's future growth, Turner said. In the lab's case, the workload might increase in the future if the city needs testing services for samples of storm water for its storm water quality program, he added. The new facility also features a board room where WASA will convene its regular meetings, which were previously staged at the city council chambers at City Hall. The public entrance for the facility is at the northern end of the building, while the southern end features WASA's maintenance bay, which allows some vehicles to be stored indoors when necessary and extra storage space for tools and other parts. "I think some of our people, particularly those in the field, are afraid of it," Turner said of the new building. "They've never had anything this nice." The building, which has a break room that's also used for meetings, was designed to be low maintenance, Turner said. That goes down to the textured tile floors, which are tinted a muted orange to cover up tracks of Georgia's red clay that might be tracked in by staff or visitors, Turner noted. The men's and women's locker rooms also feature showers so workers can clean up when necessary. The building is the first project that's part of the authority's bond-funded capital expansion plan, which will increase the sewer system's treatment capacity to 6 million gallons a day.
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