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PTC to charge new fees

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizen.com

Owners of single family detached homes in Peachtree City will be charged between $2.69 and $6 a month to help pay for storm-water improvements in the city under a new utility the city is creating.

The “rough estimate” of costs for those improvements is $10 million, said City Engineer David Borkowski. Another $1 million is estimated to pay for equipment for the program, which may be financed to save initial costs, Borkowski added.

It is not yet clear how soon the city might adopt the new utility program, officials said.

A priority list of projects is still being fine-tuned by the city’s consulting firm, Integrated Science and Engineering, but it will be available at three upcoming public meetings that are being scheduled to provide information on the storm-water utility program. A large number of projects were added to the list after the heavy rains from two hurricanes earlier this year, Borkowski said.

Borkowski hopes to have two four-man crews dedicated solely to storm-water issues, including maintenance of storm-water catch basins and construction of repairs to storm-water systems. They will also be responsible for tackling stream erosion issues, digging ditches and reconstructing some ditches, he said.

The top priority will be projects that cause storm-water to invade homes, such as in the area of the Tinsley Mill condominiums, Borkowski said. There’s also a home in the Fairfield subdivision that has flooding where storm-water flows over the curb, he added.

Most of the problems relating to storm-water are due to poor engineering, poor grading or poor construction, Borkowski said. In the case of the Fairfield home, the lot shouldn’t have been graded to allow water to flow toward the home from the street, and several more inlets to the system should have been added to divert the flow to storm-water pipes, Borkowski added.

The $2.69 charge will apply to all homes with a total of less than 3,800 square feet of impervious surface, Homes with between 3,800 and 5,500 square feet impervious surface will be charged $3.95 a month; those with 5,500 square feet or more will pay $6 a month.

The city will bill each individual homeowner quarterly, and there will be an option to pay the bill once a year, Borkowski said

Bills for condominiums and apartments will go directly to the property owner, Borkowski said. A separate category is also planned for other attached structures such as duplexes, he added.

Storm-water bills will also go to all commercial, industrial and educational buildings. For example, the Kroger at the intersection of Ga. Highway 54 and Peachtree Parkway in the Peachtree Crossings shopping center will pay $209 a month but the Ruby Tuesday restaurant across the highway will pay $43 a month, Borkowski said. McIntosh High School’s storm-water bill will run $550 a month, he added.

Homes don’t have to be located in a flood plain to qualify for flood insurance, and if they are not, the insurance is also much cheaper, Borkowski said. In some cases flood insurance is a great idea, he added.

The city is hoping to save residents money by possibly implementing a garbage collection franchise, which would perhaps offset the cost increase for the storm-water utility, officials said.