News | Peachtree City

Firm chosen to build Lake McIntosh

Fri, 12/11/2009 - 3:53pm
By: John Munford

Yes Virginia, there will be a Lake McIntosh after all.

A $8.23 million bid to construct the lake’s dam and reservoir was awarded Thursday night to Brad Cole Construction. The county had initially budgeted $10 million for construction, so officials were pleased to have the bids come in well under budget.

The 650-acre reservoir, once full, is expected to provide up to 10.4 million gallons a day of drinking water, helping the county meet its projected growth beyond 2030. The lake will be created by damming up Line Creek, with some of the lake bordering Peachtree City. Much of the actual lake property is located in Coweta County.

The lake will stretch just south of Ga. Highway 54 West southward toward Falcon Field Airport.

Construction is planned to start Jan. 20 and will take two years, said Water System Director Tony Parrott. The contract contains penalties should the company somehow fail to complete the project on time, Parrott said.

The lake has been a long time in coming, as the county originally bought the land for the project in the 1970s. But due to wetland issues, the county first built Lake Kedron in 1978 and later Lake Horton in the late 1980s.

To date the water system has spent more than $7 million in land purchases, mitigation sites, wetland credits, studies and consultants for Lake McIntosh. The commission recently approved issuing a $16.5 million bond to pay for the dam, reservoir, a pump station, mitigation site construction and wetland credits.

The marketable timber has been removed from the site and and the United States Geographical Survey has installed stream monitors on Line Creek.

The dam construction plans have been approved by the Georgia Safe Dams program and a stream buffer variance was granted by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

login to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Forget It Jake, It's Chinatown
grassroots's picture
Submitted by grassroots on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 9:39pm.

I'm not familar with this project but dams, land speculations, higher taxes,commissioners and developers seem to always have their hands in our pockets. Reminds me of the movie Chinatown where "nothing was as it seems..." Check it out.
http://www.splostpoll.com


login to post comments
Lake McIntosh--"Much of the actual lake property is located
Submitted by MYTMITE on Sat, 12/12/2009 - 7:00pm.

in Coweta County." Not a lawyer or know that much about the law but what does this mean legally? Did Coweta pay for any of this? Will Coweta County be able to take water from the lake? Will we have the problem down the road that the state has with Lake Lanier? Some of the lake is bordering Peachtree City? How much? Does this mean most of it is bordering Coweta? Hope we are not once again putting ourselves at risk for problems down the road. Who got the money from the sale of the timber? So, how will this bond be paid off-if it goes like everything else that $16.5 million will grow by leaps and bounds. Was this the right time, economically, to do this? Are we in danger of running out of drinking water in the near future? At the risk of be a litte "Bonkerish"---just wondering.

login to post comments
MyTquestioins
Submitted by Bonkers on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 4:05am.

Now what is Bonkerish about this?

Of course many costs aren't included in this bid. They will be asked for later.

I'm sure it does not include pumping and treatment facilities nd piping.
No doubt the restoring of the shore lines is not included as far as grass and shrubbery is concerned,

Stocking the fish and building the docks is very unlikely to be included.

Surveying and determine the water line for deed purposes has to be done.

Lakes that straddle two counties or states have their own peculiarities that have to be negotiated.

And yes, the bidder will get more money for added things we want and forgot.

I could go on with all of the things to come, but you must get the idea. It doesn't matter, it is all tax money.

The onliest ones to make money here are the developers, real estate people, banks, and some taxes from several homes for this ;akefront property given to them.

Do you know any developer who has contributed? Who owns the land adjacent?

Why I just can't quit!

login to post comments
Bonkie, I have just decided that you are really Harold Logsdon
Submitted by MYTMITE on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 10:52pm.

in disguise. I am so glad you had all those answers for me. Are they things you actually know for a fact or just some more of your meanderings? Don't bother to reply to that one we all know the answer.

login to post comments
Bonker$ as Harold....
Mike King's picture
Submitted by Mike King on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 10:43am.

...and here I was thinking that old Bonkie had no aspirations for public office. It does fit the mindset and mental acumen for nearly all politicians. Perhaps we can get our new City Council to nename Lake McIntosh to maybe Lake Bonkie, or Bonkerdam Lake, or maybe even
Bonker$ Mill Pond. With an investor or two, we could open a "Dollar a Day and Found" Bait shop nearby.


login to post comments
MyTanswerer
Submitted by Bonkers on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 5:35am.

Know what for a fact?

It amazes me when someone, like me, asks or answers, things that will occur which are meant to be brought up at a later date. Otherwise they never could be sold to the dumb public!
Like Sonny and his big surprise that we didn't own the big drinking water lake! Even he ain't that dumb but if he had brought it up earlier---wow, what a hard time he would have gotten.

login to post comments
Please say this was not the lowest bidder
Submitted by normal on Sat, 12/12/2009 - 2:27pm.

Every time the city picks the lowest bidder we taxpayers get shafted. Like the police department that was and still is needing work. And now the city hall is sinking and being repaired, Thanks to the lowest bidder on that building. Just dont live down stream if we got the lowest bidder on the dam.

login to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.