Fayetteville garbage rates drop 18 percent, while first stormwater bills go out

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Fayetteville homeowners hit this month with the first $36.40 yearly charge to fund the city’s new stormwater utility will get a slight rebate in the amount they pay annually for garbage collection.

The city’s current hauler, Waste Management, was again the low bidder among six companies vying at Thursday night’s City Council meeting for the contract to collect residential trash in Fayetteville, said City Manager Joe Morton.

Waste Management’s monthly proposed fee of $9.35 per household was $2.15 less than what residents pay now, Morton said. That comes out to about $112.2 per year, a savings of $25.80 annually over the current yearly cost of $138.

While acknowledging it wasn’t a huge break, Morton nonetheless agreed the discounted garbage bills should help offset the extra cost for the stormwater utility. The two expenses are unrelated, except for timing.

Meanwhile, the council voted to move forward with the next project on the stormwater utility’s needs list, a detailed study of what it will take to shore up the dam holding back Pye Lake, just west of Fayette County High off Hood Avenue.

According to Morton, an initial watershed analysis of the fishing pond and earthen dam concluded that it serves a vital role in the overall stormwater collection and runoff in west Fayetteville.

“How much water can go in there, and what work needs to be done to the dam to make it safe?” said Morton. “The long-range recommendation is for the city to try and get permanent control of the lake and dam.”

The city has had temporary jurisdiction over the privately-owned lake since last summer. In early June, a freak overnight storm dumped record amounts of rain on the city in just a few hours, raising concerns that the already-full lake might burst through the weakened dam. That potential disaster was averted.

“It’s been functioning quite well,” Morton said of the arrangement thus far, working with the current property owner to shore up the fishing lake.

In other business Thursday night, the council gave yet another reprieve to the Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse Moose. The giant, life-size creature standing outside the restaurant on Ga. Highway 85 near Fayette Pavilion is in violation of the city’s sign ordinance, and first came before the City Council in November. Instead of ordering the popular photo op removed, however, city staff proposed creating a “public art” ordinance that would include the moose and similar features.

The ordinance was considered in January but sent back to city planning staff for revision. It will include a “public art standards” manual to “clearly define parameters for public art enhancements.”

So far, the moose is the only piece of public art officially being considered for the ordinance.

Also Thursday, the council:

• Got one last look at the site plan for the city’s new police headquarters and court complex. Site work has already begun on the $5 million facility at the intersection of Jimmy Mayfield Boulevard and Bradford Drive, said Morton. Completion is expected in about a year.

• Voted to proceed on down the list of projects considered in Fayetteville’s Livable Centers Initiative redevelopment grant. An earlier proposal to develop the Village Green just north of the square has been put on hold, after negotiations with various property owners fell through, Morton said, including the vacant lot directly across from Dunkin Donuts where an older home once stood.

“It was an ambitious plan, I’ll tell you that,” said Morton of the entire Village Green proposal, which would have stretched from Hwy. 85 all the way down LaFayette Avenue to Tiger Trail, connecting the square to the Villages mixed-use project.

“We just weren’t able to work all that out with the property owners and such, so we went back to the Atlanta Regional Commission and reexamined our priorities,” said Morton.

For now, instead of the Village Green, Fayetteville will get more streetscaping along Lanier Avenue and around the square, and possibly median planters along Hwy. 85, Morton said.