The city councils of Palmetto, Union City and Fairburn have a decision to make. The three cities comprising the South Fulton Municipal Regional Water & Sewer Authority will decide in May whether to secure another $13 million to construct a reservoir and lay water lines to the cities or use another approach. Since 2001, the authority has spent approximately $1.75 million in various services and fees and hundreds of thousands more in land purchases and repayments to cities for prior funding expenses. What began in 2003 with $42 million in bond money will not be enough to fund the project.

A preliminary check of records supplied by the authority showed that the largest sum paid in services and fees went to former primary consulting engineering firm Keck & Wood, paid more than $624,000 between January 2001 and March 2005. The subsequent primary engineering consultants, Infratech Consultants, Inc. has received $151,000, for a total of more than $775,000 paid to the authority’s primary engineering firms. Keck & Wood also served as the authority’s project manager for a time, as did attorney Bill McNally. Current project manager, attorney Tommy Craig, who assumed the responsibility in January 2005, has received $190,732.

Other firms providing services to the authority include archeological consultants R.S. Webb & Associates at $89,784, Eco-South, Inc. at $74,449, Environmental Labs at $14,878, Quality Data Processing at $12,312 and Ecological Solutions at $5,000. Land agent Ralph Brown has received $75,000 for services.

Authority attorney’s McNally, Fox & Grant were paid approximately $118,000 while former authority attorneys Sanders, Haugen & Sears were paid nearly $10,000. Another law firm, King & Spalding, was paid $3,500. McNally, Fox & Grant also serve as city attorneys for Palmetto, Union City and South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail Authority. CPA firm Post & Associates has received more than $37,000 for audits and other services. And approximately $33,000 was paid to the authority’s seven board members and clerk for their attendance at monthly meetings beginning in January 2001.

The authority secured $42 million in bond money in 2003 but now need more to finish the project designed to make the cities self-sufficient with drinking water. Fairburn Mayor Betty Hannah said the board was told by project manager Tommy Craig that an additional $13 million would be needed to fund project components such as water lines and a treatment plant. Hannah said some of the authority’s previous expenditures, such as purchasing property, were not supposed to have occurred until permits were secured from Georgia Environmental Protection Division and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Those permits, she said, have yet to be obtained.

“We were only supposed to spend money for permits and administrative costs,” Hannah said in a March statement. “We don’t know when the project will be permitted.”

On a related issue pertaining to the authority, the three cities beginning this summer will be responsible paying on the principal and interest on the original bond. Until now the escrow account paid the way, but with the escrow depleted, the taxpayers will begin to take up the slack. The amount of monthly payments is determined by each city’s water usage. For Fairburn that amounts to more than $75,000 per month.

The South Fulton Municipal Regional Water & Sewer Authority will have its next meeting Tuesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at Palmetto City Hall.

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