News | Tyrone

Council approves new sewer contracts

Mon, 02/06/2006 - 10:58am
By: John Thompson

After more than two years of negotiations, the town of Tyrone Thursday night approved a new sewer contract with Fairburn that officials are hailing as a much fairer contract.

The new contract deals with the reality of Fairburn no longer trying to build a wastewater treatment facility and Tyrone's sewerage being shipped to the Camp Creek Wastewater Facility in Fulton County.

Town Manager Barry Amos emphasized the new contract does not call for any increase in capacity from Fairburn.

"I was against sewer from the start, but it's here now. The original agreement was flawed and this puts the town in a much better place," said Councilman Mike Smola.

Councilman Gloria Furr questioned Amos about $168,000 in interest that Fairburn claimed Tyrone owed them, but Amos said the contract removes all questions about past debts.

The Town Council also approved two other sewer contracts Thursday night. The first is with John Wieland and concerns the Southampton development. The contract provides sewer service for only 351 homes and the commercial area along Ga. Highway 74. Any excess capacity is released to the town and 45,000 gallons a day will be held in reserve for the Fayette County Board of Education to tie into and shut down its treatment facility on Jenkins Road.

The final sewer contract provides sewer service for the next Wieland development at Kirkley Road that features 155 homes and office space. Wieland will also build all the necessary infrastructure to allow the school system to tie into Tyrone's sewer system without any cost to the school system.

"I think this is a win-win for everybody," said Councilman Paul Letourneau.

The contracts passed by a 4-1 vote with Councilman Furr casting the dissenting vote.

"I have never been in support of those 155 homes. I just think Wieland is getting a good deal," she said.

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Tyrone sewer the people responsible
Submitted by did not know on Tue, 02/07/2006 - 5:28pm.

This sewer/Wieland deal has been a long ugly saga. A year ago People at Town Hall screamed bitterly they did NOT want another densly developed Wieland subdivision. With their fingers in their ears, the Mayor and Council zoned it "duplexes" 1/2 acre lots, and voted it in anyway. Afterward, a petition to boot the Mayor, stopped only by her running off to a lawyer to keep the people from having their choice to vote on the matter. Till then, the only ojections to the petition were that Smola & Letourneau weren't on it, and a few were mad that they were not asked to be one of the original signers.
Afterwards, Grace and Gloria ran for office, winning by the widest margins Tyrone has seen.
In only one month, Gloria & Grace forced changes in the contracts that saved us thousands. These contracts laid under the noses of the others for 2-5 years, either they didn't pick up on the loopholes or chose to overlook them.
Gloria stood her ground and voted against the contracts anyway as it let Wieland build on 1/2 acre lots. something she was very much against.
The problem is, we still don't have the answer to who is responsible for this mess, either a paid, or elected, offical of the town. We must have the truth and the person dealt with. How can anyone make such an outlandish error in the amount of sewer we contracted for and all these years never corrected it? Could they have purposly done it so Weiland would have the sewer waiting for him and his 2nd project?
I have polked around some and found some very interesting reading as to how Tyrone has dealt with land annexations around the Wieland projects. It gave me some thoughts as to the honesty of what has gone on in the past and why we and the county are not on the best of terms. Read for yourself the Aug 23, 2001 minutes of the Fayette county commissioners meeting, then read The Citizen News on Sep 9, 2001 as to how the commissioners got their answers as to what the town of Tyrone was going todo with the land they wanted to annex, that later went into one of the Wieland projects.

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