Oconee County Commissioners on Tuesday night, in a short agenda-setting meeting, tentatively agreed to spend an additional $116,311 to cover increased design service costs for the Bear Creek Water Treatment Plant expansion.
The initial estimated cost for the design services, approved by the Board in November of last year, had been $2,298,279, but in May the contract cost increased to $2,786,779, and Oconee County’s portion of the cost increase is 23.8 percent, bringing the total cost to the county to $663,532.
The Upper Oconee Water Basin Authority, of which Oconee County is a part, is doubling the capacity of the water treatment facility in Jackson County from 21 million gallons per day to 42 million gallons per day.
Oconee County currently is allocated 4.5 million gallons per day from the existing treatment plant, and that allocation will increase to 9 million gallons per day when the plant is upgraded.
The Board on Tuesday also gave tentative approval to a resolution making the Oconee County Courthouse available to the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court.
Two of the three elevators in the Athens-Clarke County Courthouse are not functioning, and the third also is in disrepair. The Clarke County Sheriff at present is unable to safely escort defendants to and from the courtrooms, the commissioners were told.
At the beginning of the meeting on Tuesday, Commission Chair John Daniell announced that the final Town Hall meeting of the year will be at 6 p.m. on Oct. 8 at the Commission Chamber in the County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway.
Bear Creek Upgrade
The Upper Oconee Water Basin Authority last year awarded the $2.3 million contract for design services for the upgrade to the existing water treatment plant to Jacobs Engineering Group, an international professional services firm with offices in Atlanta.
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| Layfield Before Commission 9/24/2024 |
Barrow, Jackson, and Athens-Clarke County are Oconee County’s partners in the Authority, but only Barrow, Jackson, and Oconee County use water from the treatment plant.
Athens-Clarke County draws water from the reservoir but has its own treatment plant.
Under the new agreement, Oconee County will get the additional 5 million gallons per day from the upgraded treatment facility, Barrow County will get 6.25 million gallons per day, and Jackson County will get 9.75 million gallons per day.
Adam Layfield, Director of Water Resources for Oconee County, said the reason for the cost increase in the design services was the result of a “scope change by us. We wanted them to look at alternate ways of on-site chlorine generation, and we wanted corrosion studies just to make sure we’re doing this right.”
Current Cost Estimate
Layfield told the Board on Tuesday that “right now we are right on the cusp of getting a 90 percent design document.”
“We should have that by late November,” he said.
With that document, Layfield said, the Authority and county will have a firmer estimate of the final cost of the project.
“You might want to cover your ears,” he said, “It is about $108 million for this upgrade.”
At 23.8 percent, the cost to Oconee County would be $25.7 million.
Layfield said the project is expected to go out for construction bid in April to June.
The Water Resource Department operates as an enterprise fund, and the costs will be born by water and sewer customers, rather than by the county at large.
“The plan is for me to be retired before we need more water,” Layfield said.
When asked about his age, Layfield laughed and said “The major benefit is trying to get us into a good spot where we won’t have to have water again for a while.”
The Board put the change order for the increased cost of the design services on the consent agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, meaning it won’t be discussed again before passage unless a commissioner asked that it be withdrawn from the consent agenda.
Elevators
Commission Chair Daniell said on Tuesday that “Athens-Clarke County is having mechanical difficulties with their elevators. Currently they have three in the building and two of them are out of order.”
“So they have one working elevator that could expire at any moment,” he said.
“Getting inmates up and down the elevator without coming into contact with jurors and judges and the general public is problematic,” he said. “When that last one goes down that’s going to put them in a situation where they can’t use the courthouse except for the bottom floor.”
Daniell said the county has been asked by the Western Judicial Circuit judges to adopt a resolution stating the county’s willingness to allow the Clarke County Superior Court to use the Oconee County Courthouse.
Oconee and Clarke are partners in the Western Judicial Circuit, and Daniell said the judges could issuing a judicial order forcing the transfer even if the Board did not pass the resolution,
By passing the resolution, Daniell said, “we can go ahead and start planning for that.”
Oconee Sheriff Involved
Daniell said after passage of the resolution the county will get Oconee County Sheriff James Hale involved “to make sure everything’s covered.”
“We’re not sure if any criminal (cases) will come over,” Daniell said, “But that will be the purpose of this.”
Civil cases can be transferred without the resolution, he said.
Daniell said it will be at least nine months for Clarke County to be able to repair the elevators.
Following the meeting, County Administrator Justin Kirouac said Oconee County has upgraded both of the elevators in the Courthouse to meet new state standards.
One of those is in the center of the building, and the other is in the newly added Sally Port used for prisoner transfers.
The resolution states that Oconee County can submit invoices to Athens-Clarke County for “additional costs reasonably attributable to the use of the Oconee County Courthouse by the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court.”
Approval of the resolution also will be on the consent agenda on Tuesday.
Video
I did attend the meeting and video recorded the meeting, but below I have embedded the video on the county’s YouTube channel, since the audio is better.
The picture used above is from my video.
The meeting begins at 10:37 in the video below.
Discussion of the resolution regarding the use of the Oconee County Courthouse begins at 12:24 in the video.
Layfield explained the change order at 15:08 in the video.
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