Last week’s vote by the Tyrone Town Council to pursue additional sewage capacity from Peachtree City showed another difference of opinion on the Town Council.

The vote was 3-2 with Councilmen Gloria Furr and Grace Caldwell voting against it, while Councilmen Paul Letourneau and Mike Smola vote for pursuing the capacity. Mayor Sheryl Lee broke the tie and threw her support behind the proposal.

Reflecting on her vote this week, Caldwell is still not sure the Town Council was given correct numbers to make the proper decision.

“I asked (Town Manager) Barry Amos for a complete analysis of our current system. I believe we’re only operating at about 20 percent of our capacity now,” she said.

The city has an agreement with Fairburn that provides 250,000 gallons of sewer capacity a day, but Caldwell said the system is only using about 50,000 gallons a day. The school complex on Sandy Creek Road will soon tie into the system, but that will only use another 30,000 gallons a day.

“How far in the future will it take us to use our current capacity?” she wondered.

Caldwell also thinks the capacity purchased from Peachtree City could be used a far more denser downtown.

“The sewer lines would be coming right through downtown Tyrone. We’d have to have a lot of restaurants and eight homes to the acre to use that much excess capacity,” she said.

Caldwell maintains that residents don’t want high density developments, and said she will continue to make sure that type of development doesn’t come to Tyrone.

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