February
12, 2010
IS JCWSA WANTING THE COUNTY TO BAIL THEM OUT AGAIN?? Well, YES!
For some reason the JCWSA thinks the county taxpayers should
continually bail them out.
They’ve decided to add the amount they think they are owed
to their balance sheet and bill the county.
Dec 09 Meeting
minutes
They also have projected their annual income. They show a projected shortfall of over
$60,000 a year, and with the annual
bail out of over $40,000 a year, they still project a shortfall. It’s time for JCWSA to make it on their
own.
JCWSA
2010 Projections
“Jasper County Water/Sewer Authority-Fire
Hydrant Contract” is on the agenda for the
February 15th Commissioners meeting at 6:00PM. TWG is concerned about possible
conflicts of interest on the part of a commissioner who was actively supported
by members of the JCWSA. The support supposedly
included campaign contributions. Hopefully, the commissioner
will recuse himself on any vote on financial support to JCWSA.
Read the following story and you will see something very
similar in another county. They will be
raising rates, etc. The taxpayers are
not bailing them out.
http://www.americustimesrecorder.com/local/local_story_019202021.html
Published January 19, 2010 08:19 pm
- Schley County’s water department has been defaulting on a loan made by
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for three months, and it looks like
the department won’t be able to make payments for the next several months.
Schley leaders discuss water loan woes
Carly Farrell
The Americus Times-Recorder
ELLAVILLE —
Schley County’s water department has been defaulting on a
loan made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for three months, and it
looks like the department won’t be able to make payments for the next several
months.
The County built the water system as it currently
stands because of a survey taken by Schley
County and the Chamber of
Commerce in 2000, which showed that 75 percent of the county’s citizens would
be interested in purchasing water through the County instead of relying on
wells. The County then hired Carter & Sloope, consulting engineers, who
advised the County on how to build the system. Carter & Sloope reduced that
number to 50 percent, and built the water system based on that percentage.
Now that the system’s up and running, though, there
are only about 365 people using the water system, and the County’s just not
receiving the revenue it had expected. Once construction’s finished on Schley County’s
roads, the County’s expecting 25 more people to connect into the water system,
but that’s not going to be much in paying off the loan.
The monthly bill they’re expected to pay is $25,582,
so they’re currently behind $76,746.
The County’s only bringing in between $14,000 and $15,000
from water bills, which has been going to pay a loan that was doled out for
phase one of the water system, which covers Ellaville. The County’s never
gotten behind on phase one’s bill.
But, there are 877 taps that are not being used right
now by residents who opted not to be tapped into the system, but are still
using wells.
“It’s insurance,” Greg Barineau, Schley County Board
of Commissioners chairman, said at a meeting Tuesday. “A lot of us did it,
including me.”
Barineau explained if his well ever went dry or
broke, he’d have a back-up water supply.
The County typically charges between $650 and $700 to
tap into a water system, but the County gave its residents a discount on taps
when the water system went online.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Barineau invited
representatives from the USDA, Georgia’s U.S.
congressmen and Schley
County citizens to pow
wow about ideas on how to pay its loan.
A member of the Georgia Rural Community Assistance
Program is making a list of suggestions made at Tuesday’s meeting; Schley County
will hold another meeting to nail down its plan.
Among the suggestions were:
• Increasing the current residents’ water bills
• Getting a marketing campaign together to gather
together more residents to buy the County’s water
• Comparing the quality of well water and County
water (the County has a filter)
