City of Royston Moves Ahead to GEFA Application for Wastewater System Improvements

The Royston City Council has voted to move forward with an application for a loan from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority or GEFA to help pay for improvements to their water and wastewater system.

Improvements are needed in order to comply with the requirements of Georgia’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

A final public hearing was held before their regular session Tuesday evening but no citizens spoke for or against the improvement plan.

During their work session, the Council heard from Wiley Helm, a Representative of the Engineering firm of People & Quigley, the company working with the City to develop the water/wastewater improvement plan.

Helms told the Council and Mayor Keith Turman in reviewing Phase 1 of the plan they realized an extra step needed to be added raising the total amount of that phase of the improvements.

“We revised the Phase 1 scope to include this extra step in the process and we increased the total budget from $2.75 million to $3-million,” he said. “That $250,000 difference is there for a dewatering step. That dewatering step is going to take the biosolids that are generated in wastewater treatment, remove the water from them so they can be hauled off-site to a landfill for disposal or be further processed.”

Helm said without that extra step the equalization basin would fill with biosolids instead of storing rainwater which could cause a violation from the State.

During the following regular meeting, the Council approved the extra $250,000 and voted to begin the application process for funding from GEFA.

In other business, Mayor Turman said a House Bill on the table this Legislative session could help the city pay for this and other major projects if it passes.

House Bill 146 he said would allow municipalities that sit in three or more counties to institute a Municipal Local Option Sales Tax.

He said the extra penny on the City’s sales tax could go a long way toward making improvements on the water and wastewater system but also rollback the recent hike in utility fees.

“If we’re able to do this with a one-cent sales tax it will allow us to have the rollback on our wastewater and give that back to the citizens,” he explained. “This would allow Royston, because we sit in three counties here, to have a municipal option sales tax.”

Turman pointed out that Rep. Alan Powell supports the bill.

If it passes this session and is signed into law by the Governor, HB 146 would go into effect July 1.

However, Turman pointed out there would still have to be a referendum on the November ballot for Royston citizens to vote on it.