The Powder Springs City Council voted 3-2 recently to approve the sale of its water and sewer systems to Cobb County.
To discuss more of these details and the State of the City, a Powder Springs Town Hall meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Ford Center Reception Hall, 4181 Atlanta St. behind the library.
Also, a public hearing specifically on this matter will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 4 during a regularly scheduled Council meeting in the Council Chambers, Community Development building, 4488 Pineview Drive, Powder Springs next to City Hall.
Opposed were Councilwomen Nancy Farmer and Patricia Wisdom with Farmer wanting postponement “for citizens to understand why it’s in their best interest.”
Agreeing, Wisdom said, “My questions have not been answered.”
Mayor Al Thurman responded, “We’ve had many discussions already. There will be a savings of $30 million in infrastructure repair. Residents will save 25 percent to 100 percent on their water bills.”
Countering, Farmer said, “That $30 million figure is wrong.”
Later, Farmer told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that residents will have to pay for their own irrigation - no longer the city and not the county.
The $5.5 million sale will be closed in April with $550,000 payments from Cobb to Powder Springs each year for 10 years, using the increased revenue from city customers to make the payments.
Also, eight city employees of the water department will become employees of the Cobb County Water Department.
Cobb County Water System Director Steve McCullers told commissioners, who voted 5-0 in favor in December, that the deal will move 7,500 customers into the Cobb system where rates are 30 percent lower.
Information: CobbCounty.org/communications/news/cobb-board-agrees-purchase-powder-springs-water-system, CityOfPowderSprings.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=679
