Franklin Co IBA Working with County on Infrastructure Plan for Industrial Properties

The Franklin County Industrial Building Authority is looking into the best way to get sewer to two large parcels off Exit 160.

The first property is 180 acres that surround the Flying J truck stop on Old Federal Highway and is currently owned by an Athens group looking to market the property to industrial prospects.

The other property is across 85 at the corner of Highways 59 and 51 where an Atlanta Developer had wanted to construct a 399-unit townhome complex.

Last October, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners rezoned that acreage from Ag Intensive to Light Industrial.

However, both properties need sewer infrastructure to be marketable to potential commercial or industrial businesses.

Since then, Franklin County Engineer John Phillips has been working with the Industrial Building Authority and Commissioners to find the best and most cost-effective way to get sewer infrastructure to those properties.

Whichever is chosen by the County, the work would require the installation of a gravity sewer and force main. The potential service areas are based on the area that could potentially flow to the gravity line. Once collected sewage would then be pumped via force main to the existing collection system, according to IBA Executive Director Tonya Powers.

In order to get sewer to both properties, however, Powers said it would involve running it under I-85 and possibly building another lift station.

At their meeting Wednesday, the IBA Board discussed the four options and quotes presented to them by Phillips from various contractors.

Construction costs for the four options ranged from $1.5 million to $4.2 million depending on the amount of work.

Questions by IBA members involved whether to do one big project for both properties all at once or do two separate projects.

The consensus was that it would be more cost-effective to do one big project.

IBA Board Chair Lee Moore made it clear to citizens attending the meeting that the role of the IBA was to gather the information and then to submit their recommendation to the Board of Commissioners.

Ultimately, Moore said it will be the Board of Commissioners who decide on a direction for the new sewer system.

At this point, Commissioners have not made a decision on how to proceed with installing a new sewer system to serve the two properties.