FC Commissioners approve bids for water storage tank

The Franklin County government is in the middle of a two-year project to improve the water system and increase capacity. A main reason for the project was the projected need for water to the new energy facility soon to open.

Franklin County County Manager Beth Thomas said the improvements were required in order to service the new customer.

“The years 2018 and 2019 are going to be huge years for Franklin County infrastructure projects. One of the main factor driving that is we have the GRP Power Plant that will become our largest water customer. Earlier this year Franklin County entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoI) and User Agreement defining guaranteed sales from the power plant. In preparation for this expected volume of water being sold, Franklin County must make some improvements to our water system,” said Thomas.

Funding for the project came from multiple sources, including a loan and a grant.

“Franklin County evaluated funding options which included grants, loans and loan forgiveness. We were able to receive a $3.5 million loan with GEFA (Georgia Environmental Finance Authority) which includes a $500,000 loan forgiveness. In addition, we received an ARC (Appalachian Regional Commission) grant of which $775,000 will be applied to these projects so we will be able to do these water infrastructure projects backed by the guaranteed sales of the power plant,” said Thomas.

The improvements call for additional storage as well as new water mains.

“Our water system projects include a ground storage mixing tank, which is currently awarded in three separate contracts that will also include the development of additional water sources, an elevated tank, and the removal of a separate unused tank at another location and possibly additional water mains. Our key projects are what’s driving this. We’ll make sure we get done what’s necessary first any excess funds will kind of determine our later projects and how many additional water mains we can add,” said Thomas.

The board of commissioners approved part of that project at the January meeting.

“Three contracts for these water system improvements were awarded in November. That included the mixing tank, well development and line work. That work will begin this week, so we will see a lot of activity across the county over the next several weeks as we work on these projects. Contract four, which was for the elevated tank, was approved at our January meeting. That bid went to Caldwell Tanks in the amount of $786,000 which was quite a bit under what we had projected. The elevated tank will go on the corner of Black Snake Road and Stars Bridge and the purpose of the tank is to alleviate possible fluctuations in water pressure on the ridge on the eastern portion of our water system,” said Thomas.

WLHR News will have follow-up coverage of the infrastructure improvements over the next two days.