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August 16, 2008

Sewerage still in question for new high school

By Mark Millican

In Don Cope’s mind, there is no question that a satellite sewage plant will be built near Coahulla Creek below the Prater’s Mill historic area.

What the president of Dalton Utilities is unsure of is when that day will come, and whether it will be online in time to provide service to the Whitfield County Schools high school planned for that area.

“We will build that plant,” Cope said. “I’m confident of that. But we’re not going to build that plant until we put more revenue into the plant we already have to produce (more) revenue.”

Cope said what “everyone has to grasp” is that the new Mill Creek plant on Crow Valley Road was already contracted to be built when revenue fell off due to a stagnant economy.

Cope said it takes six to eight months to build a satellite sewage plant. The one on Mill Creek cost $8 million, and the one planned for Coahulla Creek is identical, although prices for materials are likely to increase.

The new high school near Varnell is projected to open in the spring of 2011. Cope was asked what the timeline of the sewage plant below Prater’s Mill coming online might be.

“The timeline would be the day someone showed up with the money and said go ahead and build it,” Cope replied. “This has nothing to do with anything except revenue stream. It’s a pure money issue.”

If Whitfield schools is unable to access sewer from the Coahulla Creek plant, it will have to go to Plan B — a septic system with a large drain field. From 2007 to 2008 a “design team” of business leaders, teachers, parents and high school students studying the proposed high school cited the building of a septic system if the sewage plant did not work out.

But that could prove to be a problem. The Georgia Department of Education’s “A Guide to School Site Selection” (www.doe.k12.ga.us/fbo_facilities.aspx?PageReq=FBOFacilitiesInfo) says, “The desirability of public water and sewage system to a school site cannot be over emphasized. The cost of installing private (septic) systems, along with the continuing maintenance costs, plus environmental considerations all but eliminate consideration of private installations.

“Only in cases of overriding circumstances will site approval be granted at locations which cannot be served by public sewage systems.”

Peter Olson, the attorney representing the Concerned Citizens of Prater’s Mill Community and Whitfield County, believes the sewer/septic issue is a critical one.

“From our point of view, the notion that public sewer may not be available in time to open the school, or may never be available if the economics do not support the second plant, is not a minor issue to be brushed aside,” he said. “Yet that is how the Whitfield County Board of Education treats the issue — it’s routine, no big deal, the site is fine, etc.”

Olson said his group’s hearing before the Whitfield school board expressing their opposition to the site should come soon.

Stan Hawkins with the law firm representing the school system said both sides have discussed the hearing and are checking schedules.

“Nothing has been scheduled yet,” he said, “but it will be done through agreement.”

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