News | Peachtree City

Sewer fix comes in under budget

Thu, 01/12/2006 - 4:09pm
By: John Munford

Peachtree City’s Water and Sewer Authority saved money on a recently-completed sewer rehabilitation project.

The final cost came $12,100 under budget, necessitating a change order outlining various credits for parts of construction that were budgeted but never needed.

The $319,951 project was built by Crawford Grading and Pipeline, Inc.

The sewer line that was replaced stretches across Riley Parkway and toward Lake Peachtree and the Tinsley Mill condominiums. The condos typically flood during heavy rainstorms.

During the project, crews had to use temporary piping to handle the wastewater flow while they removed the old pipe and installed the new pipe, said WASA General Manager Larry Turner.

In other business, Turner pointed out the dramatic decrease in industrial water consumption when comparing November of this year to November of last year, when industrial customers accounted for 14.6 million gallons of usage.

This November, with the shuttering of printed circuit boards manufacturer Photocircuits, the industrial usage is down to 3.178 million gallons. Photocircuits had permits to use up to 325,000 gallons of water a day and now WASA is without that revenue.

Still, WASA has kept a fairly sound financial picture, posting a positive cash flow in its 2004-2005 budget.

The authority has about $5 million in cash reserves, which has been invested to earn interest payments, just in case the financial situation starts to go south, Turner said, adding that he likes to keep nine to 12 months working capital on hand just in case. Doing so also helps improve the authority’s bond rating, he added.

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Annexation and Sewer for Profit: the Lenox Manifesto
Submitted by Joe Swanson on Tue, 01/17/2006 - 10:05pm.

The possibilities of using sewer and annexation hand in hand to profit was a big part of the Robert W. Morgan-Lenox days. But I agree--- just because your utility is bleeding badly, annexation to prop it up is poor fiscal planning. Loved the old DJ photo, Bob...Remniniscent of the Bluto college experience.

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Water and Sewer not under city control
Submitted by familyman on Wed, 01/18/2006 - 7:56am.

You are not correct with your facts. The Peachtree City Water and Sewer Authority (PCWASA) is a completely separate entity from the City. No one who is employed by the city, or an elected official of the city has any say whatsoever in the operation or finances of the WASA. Whether or not the city chooses to anex any land is completely up to their own discretion and they will not benefit from any revenue to WASA. This helps the citizens of PTC for several reasons; first, the revenue and finances can not be used for anything other than WASA projects. This means that budgetary shortfalls within the city can not be suplemented with money meant for the maintenance and upkeep of the sewer system. Second, WASA is not subject to any political agendas, all of the decisions made, regarding the authority are made with the best interest of the citizens in mind, not in what will get someone re-elected. What all of this means to you and the other citizens of PTC is that you have a top notch sewer system at rates below the metro atlanta average.

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WASA independent
Submitted by Sailon on Wed, 01/18/2006 - 8:46am.

Bull! For whom do they work? Who pays for their health insurance? Who furnishes them a retirement? You are naive, my friend.

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Yes, independent
Submitted by familyman on Wed, 01/18/2006 - 10:40am.

The employees of WASA work for the Board of Directors. The only and I mean the only relationship with the city is that City Council must approve and appoint the members of the board. As I understand, the city does process their payroll, but they pay the city for doing so. Take a few minutes and go to one of their meetings, as I have done, and you can also find out the truth. All of their finances are completely independent of the city.

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Annexation for $$$
Robert W. Morgan's picture
Submitted by Robert W. Morgan on Tue, 01/17/2006 - 7:24am.

This is how the justification for annexation begins in some places. "We have extra sewer capacity and our revenues are down - let's go out and annex something" Not that there's anything wrong with that.


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Yes Annexation is wrong
H. Hamster's picture
Submitted by H. Hamster on Tue, 01/17/2006 - 8:56pm.

You can't possibly convince me that annexation for the sole reason of tax revenue is right. There needs to be extraordinary circumstances and we have none of those, unless you think the annexation will relieve the traffic at the 74/54 intersection. And even then, you have to prove how it will actually help.


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