The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight approved a modification to an earlier rezone that could result in the United States Department of Agriculture relocating its offices from the county Government Annex on Greensboro highway south of Watkinsville to near the USDA farms on Hog Mountain road.
The modifications would allow Allen Giddens of Gainesville to purchase a vacant lot (below) in Twelve Oaks Office Park, build a single-story building and lease the building to the USDA.
Prior to the unanimous vote tonight, buildings in the five-lot office park could not be larger than 2,800 feet of ground coverage. The BOC vote increased the amount to 5,600 square feet.
The USDA currently is renting space on a monthly basis in the Government Annex for its Farm Service Agency and for its Natural Resource Conservation Service. The county had a lease with USDA for the space, but the lease expired earlier this year.
In May the county began discussing the possibility of renovating the Government Annex to accommodate county space needs. It told the USDA after those discussions began that it would have to leave.
County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault told the BOC tonight that the county has informed USDA it can stay. In that circumstance, the county and USDA would have to renegotiate the lease.
Theriault told me after the meeting that the USDA was paying about $10,000 a year for use of the Government Annex space and has not told the county what it plans to do in the future.
Giddens told the BOC tonight he has an option to purchase the lot in the Hog Mountain road office park from Robert and Joanne Fine of Bishop. Giddens said the option runs only through the end of this year.
Giddens said he submitted a bid to USDA earlier this year but has not heard if it will be accepted. He said he hopes to hear in the next few weeks.
“If we don’t get the bid, the project will not go forward,” he said.
The proposal calls for use of 4,100 square feet of the 5,500 square-foot building Giddens said he plans to build. He said the additional space would be available to the USDA for future expansion.
Giddens told the Board the USDA specified it wants a one-story building. He told me that the cost of an elevator for such a small building would increase the price by $100,000, making it too expensive for him to build.
Total estimated cost of the proposed building without the elevator is $400,000, according to a letter Giddens submitted to the county along with the rezone application.
The rezone the BOC approved in March of 1993 for the office park specified that the buildings must have a brick exterior, be built “in a Georgian style” and be one and a half stories or two stories in height.
The BOC tonight added the requirement that Giddens modify his submitted plan to add dormers at the front of the building to give it the appearance of being a story and a half in height.
The Board also added the stipulation that the change it was making to allow Giddens to build a single-story building did not apply to another unbuilt lot in the subdivision.
Giddens was the only person speaking in favor of the proposed change tonight. No one spoke against, though I did ask the Board several questions about the proposal, including how the one-story structure meshed with the 1993 ordinance and whether the change applied to the other empty lot.
Twelve Oaks Business Park was designed when the adjoining Twelve Oaks subdivision was built early last decade. Both adjoin USDA farm land.
Two lots in the subdivision are used by Summer Hill Recreation Club for a commercial pool and tennis court facility under a Conditional Use Permit approved by the county in 1994. Summerhill also uses space in Twelve Oaks Business Park for parking.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners gave tentative approval last night to two new sewer projects that include an upgrade to the county’s only existing sewage plant and replacement of the main arterial line that feeds the plant.
The $1.9 million project will be funded in part through a loan from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA), the state agency that administers programs that provide financial assistance and other support services to improve Georgia’s environment.
The money actually comes from the federal government through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which provides funds for water quality protection projects around the country.
The county applied for and was awarded a $1.8 million loan for the project. GEFA already has indicated it will forgive $270,000 of the loan, which is not due until completion of the project or September of 2011.
The county either will pay off the 10-year loan when it comes due with monies already available, County Finance Director Jeff Benko told the commissioners last night, or it will pay off the $1.53 million over time at 3 percent interest, depending on which is more favorable to the county.
Benko said the county has collected fees from developers wishing to reserve capacity for sewage treatement that will allow the county to pay for the project and that money is invested and earning interest.
Benko told me after the meeting that the county also will seek additional loan money from GEFA, since the $1,939,057 total cost of the project is greater than the initial estimated budget of $1.8 million.
The commissioners last night gave initial approval to a bid of $1,233,809 from Southern Champion Construction Inc. of Stone Mountain for the upgrade to the head works of the Calls Creek sewage plant and immediately included a change order that would reduce that project’s total price by $84,500.
The commissioners also gave preliminary approval to a bid of $789,778 to Gary’s Grading and Pipeline Company of Monroe for a replacement of the main sewage line feeding that plant.
Approval of both bids will be on the consent agenda at the Dec. 7 meeting, meaning they will be approved without further discussion unless a commissioner asks that the items be removed from the agenda for further consideration.
Jimmy Parker from Precision Planning Inc. of Lawrenceville, acting as a consultant to the county, told the commissioners last night that the county’s application with GEFA was rated tops in the state, receiving a score of 93 out of 100 possible points, because of project needs and environmental impact and because of the compliance record of the county’s utility department.
“A lot of things your utility department has been doing spoke well in that application,” Parker said.
The Calls Creek sewage plant upgrade includes a new receiving well below the plant into which the sewage flows before it is pumped uphill to the treatment plant itself as well as screens to filter out heavy materials before they enter the plant.
That well will have a 5 million gallon per day capacity, although the plant itself is only permitted to operate at 0.67 MGD at present.
The county will use an existing emergency backup pump rather than buy a new one, as originally proposed, saving the $84,500 covered by the change order.
The upgrade also will include a septage receiving station that will preprocess the contents of septic tanks that haulers bring to the plant.
At present, the county does not have such a facility, though one had been incorporated into the plans for the proposed Rocky Branch sewage plant. Those plans are now on hold due to the drop in demand in the weak economy.
Chris Thomas, Utility Department director, said last night the inclusion of the septage receiving station at Calls Creek could make such a facility at Rocky Branch unnecessary.
The sewer line to be upgraded currently handles all of the effluent going into the Calls Creek plant and follows Calls Creek from near the county jail on Experiment Station road in Watkinsville to the plant itself.
The county will replace a 10-inch line with a 24-inch line and remove four aerial crossings of Calls Creek and Lampkin Branch, which feeds into Calls Creek. The new line will be entirely underground, flow by gravity and run a total of 5,500 feet.
The county also has received a grant of $187,000 from the state for an unrelated sewage project that would serve Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s Hospital Highland Hills on Jennings Mill road. That project is currently on hold while the county negotiates over easements.
Funding for that grant also comes from the federal government.
The Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee for Land Use and Transportation Planning has delayed until at least January any decision on the Northeast Georgia Plan for Bicycling and Walking.
The plan, designed to increase the safety and prevalence of walking and bicycling, was developed by the staff of the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission in collaboration with its Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force. Six Oconee County representatives serve on that 32-member body.
The Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee reviewed and discussed the plan for 75 minutes at its Nov. 9 meeting and considered a resolution drafted by Oconee County staff that would have “recognized” the plan rather than “adopt” or “endorse” it, as NEGRC proposed.
The Committee voted 9-2 to consider the plan again in the future.
Twenty-five minutes later the Committee cancelled its December meeting, meaning the earliest it can discuss the plan again is at its scheduled meeting on Jan. 11.
*Develop “facilities and policies” to encourage walking and bicycling in Northeast Georgia.
*Generate “confidence and security” for people walking and bicycling through the region.
*Support bicycling and walking trips between neighborhoods and regionally important destinations.
*Foster “active lifestyles,” promote “community-based commerce” and reduce the environmental impact of motorized transportation.
The plan contains a proposed “Bicycle and Pedestrian Network” that includes SR 15 from Watkinsville to the Greene County line, US 441 from Clarke County to Morgan County, and Mars Hill road.
The plan proposes that SR 15 have a paved shoulder in the future and that US 441 have a separate path for biking and walking. Mars Hill road widening plans already include a bike lane.
The plan also lists greenways along the Apalachee, Middle Oconee and Oconee rivers and the Athens Line, the rail line running from Athens to Madison and now designated as a Regionally Important Resource by NEGRC.
The biking and walking plan is advisory. NEGRC has no enforcement authority.
Following the vote to postpone a decision on the Bicycling and Walking Plan, the Committee took action on a request from the Oconee County Cycling Organization to post Share the Road signs on four county roadways.
All 11 members of the committee agreed to recommend to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners that the signs be installed on the roadways if OCCO pays for the signage.
County Public Works Director Emil Beshara said he would put the signs on Simonton Bridge road at county expense, but he also wants to put up a sign that says bicyclists should Ride Single File on the road, even though state law allows bicyclists to ride two abreast.
Beshara said his sign would be yellow—meaning it was advisory—rather than white, which, he said, designates a requirement.
Beshara also said he already has put up Share the Road signs on New High Shoals road, one of the four roads for which OCCO had originally requested the signage. The others were Simonton Bridge road, Colham Ferry road and Barnett Shoals road.
The Athens Banner-Heraldreported on Nov. 15 on the Nov. 9 recommendation of the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee that the roadways be signed, but it made no mention of the discussion of the Plan for Bicycling and Walking in its story.
I did not attend the Nov. 9 meeting, but I did watch a video of it made for me by citizen Sarah Bell.
The Committee first viewed a PowerPoint presentation about the Bicycling and Walking Plan by Nina Kelly, a planner with NEGRC, and then discussed biking in the county. Little was made of walking, and almost nothing was said of the actual details of the plan.
NEGRC included two sample endorsement resolutions as part of the appendix to the bicycling and walking plan.
In one, Oconee County would endorse the plan. In another, the county would adopt the plan.
Wayne Provost, director of Strategic and Long-Range Planning for Oconee County, offered the Committee a third resolution that he said he had drafted. It merely recognized the plan.
The two resolutions proposed by NEGRC said the county recognized the “need to promote non-motorized transportation options to improve air quality and public health.”
Provost’s rewrite said the county “recognizes the potential for non-motorized transportation options to improve air quality and public health.”
Provost said he offered the revision because of “a skepticism of central planning” on the part of local government officials.
In fact, BOC Chairman Melvin Davis sent the other four members of the Commission an email message on Oct. 1 telling them he thought “the Board should give strong consideration to supporting the ‘Recognition” resolution” rather than the two from the NEGRC.
Committee member Richard McSpadden spoke out against Provost’s resolution.
“Let’s either have the leadership to say we endorse the plan or we don’t,” he said. “I want this committee to take a leadership stand and push the county into thinking strategically about where we want the county to go.”
Planner Kelly told the Committee NEGRC expects each of the 12 counties in the NEGRC region to reach a decision on the plan by June.
After deciding to continue discussion on the plan in the future, the Committee turned to the signage issue.
In a letter written in July by McSpadden, who was then president of the Oconee cycling organization, the cyclists asked the county to sign the four roads and said the group “is ready to partner with the county to fund and install the signage.”
The county sent the request to the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee, which took it up at its meeting on Sept. 14.
At that meeting, Public Works Director Emil Beshara said he was concerned that installation of the signs might increase the county’s liability should an accident with a cyclist take place on a road with a sign.
Beshara conceded at the Nov. 9 meeting that the signage would have no effect on liability. State law specifies that bicyclists have the same right to the roadways as do drivers of automobiles, he said.
Beshara also acknowledged at the Nov.9 meeting that he had installed the signs on New High Shoals road this summer, even though he raised the objection at the September meeting.
The Committee dispensed with the signage issue in 10 minutes.
Citizens attending Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee meeting are allowed to speak only on issues on the agenda, and only after the committee has finished its discussion of those issues.
So Committee chairman Abe Abouhamdan recognized the dozen citizens present, mostly bikers, after the action on signage had already been taken.
Tony Glenn, an Oconee County citizen representative to the Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force, was present. He, among others, objected to the proposed signs telling bicyclists to ride single file.
The argument was that motorists would think riding two abreast was a violation of the law.
Beshara offered a counter proposal.
He said he would be willing to change the wording of the sign to Please Ride Single File.
Nearly a year of monitoring of multiple sites on Calls Creek in Oconee County by law students at the University of Georgia has confirmed what the Georgia Environmental Protection Division concluded based on single reading of the same creek back in 2004.
Calls Creek, at least at times and in some places, has fecal coliform readings that exceed federal standards, meaning that the stream is legally impaired.
The most likely culprits are failing septic systems and cattle.
The question now is what to do about it.
The UGA students, in a meeting tonight at the Oconee County Government Annex attended by about 20 people, proposed a series of activities.
These included continued monitoring of the stream, precise identification of the sources of the pollution, talking with the owners of the cattle and with owners of the septic systems about federal and state funding for compliance, and working with county and Watkinsville officials to determine what else can be done.
Lee Carmon, from the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission, who chaired tonight’s meeting, said she will follow up on these suggestions.
Carmon opened tonight’s meeting with some background of the work of the students and then turned it over to those students to report on the findings of the monitoring.
The monitoring project has been funded by a grant to the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Students enrolled in a course directed by Laurie Fowler, associate dean, Odum School of Ecology, undertook the stream monitoring. Fowler was at tonight’s meeting.
In 2007, the state designated the 4-mile segment of the creek from where Lumpkin Branch meets Calls Creek near the county jail to the Oconee River as impaired. Calls Creek is roughly six miles long.
According to the report by the UGA students tonight, monitoring from March to the end of the summer confirmed problems with Calls Creek particularly in the area downstream from Oconee County’s Calls Creek sewage plant.
Many of the Watkinsville homes in this area are on septic, the students reported, and a small farm with cattle is nearby.
The sewage plant itself has not been identified as a source of the pollution, the student team reported.
As a result of the higher cfu levels near the plant, the students began monitoring additional sites in that area.
Again in September, October and November, the students found high levels at several sites, including those around the sewage treatment plant.
Calls Creek is particularly important because it flows through Watkinsville and other neighborhoods in the county.
Children wade in Calls Creek in many places, and particularly at Harris Shoals, a popular park in Watkinsville.
So far, the readings at Harris Shoals usually have not exceeded federal standards, according to the law students.
“There are kids and mommies playing in that creak about nine months out of the year,” former Watkinsville Mayor Jim Luken said at the meeting tonight. “It is terribly important to the local community that that is safe.”
Carmon said that concern would be incorporated into the future program.
“I would like to see us build some partnerships in the community so that the community will long-term take on this monitoring,” she added.
The Northeast Georgia Regional Commission will hold a meeting starting at 6 p.m. on Nov. 16 at the Oconee County Government Annex on SR 15 to present the results of its study of pollution of Calls Creek and its recommendations for dealing with the contamination.
The meeting is a follow-up to one held in September, at which data were presented from monitoring of the stream from March through September and from a walk of the stream from its origins west of Watkinsville to its confluence with the Oconee River just upstream from Simonton Bridge road.
The monitoring plan calls for continued sampling of data from the stream from nine different sites until the end of the year.
The study is the consequence of the classification by the state of Georgia of a section of the stream as impaired due to a fecal coliform reading in 2004 of 9,000 colony forming units (cfu), or more than double the 4,000 cfu standard for the sampled time period.
That state took its reading just upstream from confluence of Calls Creek and the Oconee River and about two miles downstream from where the Oconee County Calls Creek sewage plant discharges. The discharge from the sewage plant is constantly monitored to meet state discharge standards.
The state designated the 4-mile segment of the creek from where Lumpkin Branch meets Calls Creek near the county jail to the Oconee River as impaired. Calls Creek is roughly six miles long.
The popular Harris Shoals Park in Watkinsville is on Calls Creek.
NEGRC initiated the monitoring plan in March to determine the source of the contamination and to develop strategies to reduce it.
At the first meeting in September, the monitors reported that the stream was “visually healthy.” At the same time, the report said that “debris was found in larger quantities near houses and other developments.”
A report by those who walked the stream noted “trash and rusting appliances” and “junked vehicles” near the county’s sewage plant. “During the stream walk,” according to the report, “students observed a foul smell immediately at and after”the sewage plant.
NEGRC states that its goal for the project is to “bring Calls Creek up to regulatory water quality standards so that it is again safe for community use.”
The meeting on Tuesday will be held in the Small Conference Room at the Annex, 1291 Greensboro highway (SR 15).
The Oconee County Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee will return to the issue of bicyclists tomorrow night when it takes up a request that the county put up Share the Road signs on four Oconee County roadways.
Those roads are Colham Ferry road from Watkinsville to Watson Spring Mill road, Simonton Bridge road from Watkinsville to the county line, New High Shoals road from U.S. 441 to SR 186, and Barnett Shoals road from Watkinsville to the county line.
Much of the discussion was quite critical of the request, with Emil Beshara, county director of Pubic Works, saying he believed the signs would create liability issues for the county.
Committee Chairman Abe Abouhamdan agreed to take up the issue again at the meeting tomorrow night, which begins at 7 p.m. at the Community Center in Veterans Park.
In the meantime, the Board of Commissioners has sent the Land Use Committee the Plan for Bicycling and Walking for review.
The citizen committee has been asked by the BOC to make a recommendation to it both on the signage issue and on the Northeast Georgia plan.
The Bicycling and Walking plan was on the agenda of the BOC for Oct. 26 when County Clerk Gina Lindsey released it on the afternoon of Oct. 22. She released a revised agenda on Oct. 25 that eliminated the item.
Lindsey said in releasing the second agenda that the biking and walking plan was being sent to the Land Use Committee for review.
Chairman Melvin Davis sent the other four commissioners an email message on Oct. 1 advising them of the request by the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission that the county approve the plans.
He sent with his Oct. 1 memo three resolutions for the commissioners to consider. One endorsed the resolution and one adopted the resolution.
The third, which Davis said he recommended, simply recognized the resolution. That third resolution, which he told the commissions had been drafted by Strategic and Long-Range Planning Director Wayne Provost, greatly distances the county from the plan.
The other two drafts say that the county “will implement” or “will consider implementation” of the plan.
The document drafted by Provost says the county “may consider” the plan “when making some planning development decisions.”
Nina Kelly of the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission is scheduled to appear before the Land Use Committee to make the case for the plan.
A sewage line that the Oconee County administration has been touting as a way of providing sewage services for two existing customers, Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s Health Care System Highland Hills, actually will provide sewers for a separate tract of land that the county wants to open for development.
The 114-acre tract, previously undiscussed in public meetings, is owned by Evelyn and Frank Gordy Family, a limited partnership from Atlanta. Varsity Real Estate, also of Atlanta, is a partner of the Evelyn and Frank Gordy Family company.
Representing the Gordy Family in discussions with the county about the tract and sewage services is developer Frank Bishop, who expects to open his Epps Bridge Centre once the Oconee Connector Extension, now under construction, is completed.
According to an Oct. 29, 2010, email message from Chris Thomas, Oconee County Utility Department director, to Alan Theriault, Oconee County administrative officer, Bishop has an option on the 114-acre tract, which also will be accessible via the new roadway.
Bishop also purchased part of the tract for his shopping center from the Gordy Family.
The state is paying for that roadway, which will loop traffic from State Route 316 just west of LOOP 10 through the Bishop and Gordy land back to Epps Bridge Parkway just west of Lowe’s.
At the meeting of the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, Chairman Melvin Davis urged the Board to approve rebidding for the sewer line project, since the bids received in response to a request for proposals of September of 2009 have now expired.
The four other members of the board objected, however, because both St. Mary’s and the Gordy Family are asking the county to pay for easements to run the proposed sewer line across their property.
That means that the owners of two of the properties that would benefit from the sewer line not only are not willing to help pay for its construction but also want the county to use taxpayer dollars to pay them for use of their land.
The city of Athens, which also owns a piece of land the line will cross, also is asking the county to pay for an easement.
Despite the request from Davis to go forward with the project, the board agreed only to continue discussions regarding the easements.
Davis, in fact, had tried to keep the item off the agenda on Tuesday night, telling Theriault in an email message on Oct. 18 that “the board has already approved the project, the need for the project has not changed, the projected expense was approved from SPLOST and the grant, the BOC was aware that the property owners had the option of being paid for the easement.”
The grant he referred to was for $186,711 from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. The remainder of the estimated $773,000 cost of the sewer line is to be paid for from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenues.
The sewer line appeared on the Nov. 2 BOC agenda because commissioners Jim Luke and Chuck Horton objected to going forward without further public discussion.
The possibility that some properties other than Zoom Bait and St. Mary, both on Jennings Mill road, might be served by the proposed sewer line was an issue at the July 27 meeting of the BOC, when the issue was last discussed publicly.
Commissioners Margaret Hale, Horton and Luke specifically asked Thomas of the Utility Department if other properties would be served by the sewer line.
In the exchange, Thomas seemed to be conceding that the new sewer line might be used by customers other than Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s.
Economic Development Director Rusty Haygood interrupted him.
The land available for development behind WalMart and Lowe’s can be better served by an existing line the county installed more than a decade ago, Thomas then said.
“This project is specifically designed for those two businesses,” Thomas said. No other customers had been identified, he said, but, at least theoretically, others could use it.
When I called Haygood on the phone on July 30 and asked him again if there were others customers, he said the sewer line was for two customers, Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s.
The county also told the state of Georgia in its Department of Communnity Affairs grant application that the project was designed to help Zoom Bait and St. Mary's, existing businesses in the county.
While Davis on Tuesday night was acknowledging that Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s were not the only parties involved in discussions, he refused to even use the name of the owner of the “large tract” in arguing that the rebidding should go forward.
It was Thomas who explained who really is to benefit from the sewer line.
He told the commissioners that he had organized a meeting with Bishop on July 7 that was attended by Davis, Theriault, Rusty Haygood, County Attorney Daniell Haygood, and county Strategic and Long-Range Planning Director Wayne Provost.
“We were going to try to get some participation from the Gordy family for the project to help cover that shortfall,” Thomas said.
The project nearly doubled in cost after the first estimates used in the Department of Community Affairs application, and Thomas was hoping Bishop or the Gordy Family would help make up the difference.
Thomas even said he told Bishop the county might actually cancel the sewer project without some assistance.
The threat didn’t work, and Bishop didn’t come up with any money, though he did say he would work on the easement issue, Thomas said.
Commissioner Horton told me yesterday that he first learned of Bishop’s involvement in the discussions with the county about the sewer line only on Oct. 25.
Horton said he and Commissioner Hale met with Bishop–at Bishop’s invitation--at the Starbucks in downtown Athens at 10 a.m. that day to talk about progress on Epps Bridge Centre.
At the end of the meeting, Horton said, after Hale had already left, Bishop brought up discussions with the county about the sewer line on the Gordy property.
“That was the first I knew he had something to do with the Gordy property,” Horton said.
He said he also checked with Commissioners Hale, Luke and John Daniell and learned that they also were in the dark about discussions between the county and Bishop regarding the Gordy property.
On Oct. 28, Horton sent an email message to Davis and the other commissioners, with copies to Thomas, Rusty Haygood and Daniel Haygood, and Theriault.
“I would also like to know about any meetings with other landowners or possible purchasers of property that would be positively impacted by the infrastructure improvements by the county” on the Zoom Bait/St. Mary’s sewer project, Horton wrote.
On Oct. 29, Thomas wrote back to Theriault, saying “I believe the meeting Commissioner Horton is referring to took place on 7/7/2010. I attended and initiated the meeting along with the Chairman, Frank Bishop, Rusty, Wayne, you.”
He included in his email to Theriault a copy of an email he sent to Bishop “following the meeting.”
In that letter, Thomas estimated that it would cost the developer of the Gordy property about $975,000 if it had to pump sewage to the existing sewer line–the one Thomas had said would serve the property at the July 27 meeting–if the new line were not built.
The proposed new sewer line would be downhill from much of the expected development on the Gordy property, so lift stations would not be required, making the project less expensive.
I obtained this correspondence via an open records request I filed on Thursday night. I asked the county to provide to me what Theriault had provided to the commissioners to brief them on the Tuesday night meeting.
Included was a hand-drawn map, which Rusty Haygood also had provided me on Wednesday.
It also included copies of detailed maps produced by Williams & Associates of the actual sewer line.
The maps make it clear how much of a benefit the new sewer line would be to Bishop or whoever develops the Gordy track.
While the project has been described as a gravity flow system from Zoom Bait, which sits on a high bank above McNutt Creek, to a pump station on McNutt creek behind Kohl’s on Epps Bridge parkway, the maps show that the sewer line, in fact, does not follow McNutt Creek.
Rather the line would leave Zoom Bait, cross Jennings Mill road, and follow the existing roadway on the creek side of the St. Mary’s complex.
Zoom Bait is willing to grant an easement for the small part of its land the line will traverse.
After leaving the St. Mary’s property, the sewer line would cross an edge of the property owned by Athens and then traverse large sections of the Gordy property before actually approaching McNutt Creek, which serves as the border with Clarke County.
From there it would connect with the existing sewer line.
An Athens-Clarke County line, according to the hand-drawn map, runs on the opposite side of the creek and roughly follows the creek.
Chairman Davis offered member of the audience a chance to speak on Tuesday night after he urged the commission to move forward on the project, and John Morrison, a member of the Oconee County Development Authority, came forward to support Davis’ recommendation.
He said he was certain that Zoom Bait was thinking of leaving the county if it didn’t get the sewage line to replace the septic system it now uses and said the county should do what it could to help support existing employers in the county. Zoom bait makes fishing lures.
St. Mary’s sends its sewage across McNutt Creek to the sewage line that parallels the creek and flows to a Clark County sewage treatment facility.
Commissioners Horton and Luke urged Thomas to explore whether Athens-Clarke County could handle the Zoom effluent as well.
A story in the the Athens Banner-Herald on Aug. 17 said, in its headline, that the proposed sewer line “will help prevent job drain.”
The story also said the new sewer line will “encourage more commercial growth along Jennings Mill road.”
Jennings Mill road does not connect with Epps Bridge parkway, but much of the traffic leaving a developed Gordy Family tract certainly will.
Benko, it seems now, had it right, though he was not toeing the official line when he said that a key purpose of the proposed sewer line is future development.
