Residents Must Pay for Larger Water Line, City of Lavonia Says

A Gumlog subdivision that receives Lavonia City water will have to come up with the money if they want a bigger water line.

Residents of Capri Point off Poplar Springs Road on Hartwell Lake are asking the city to put in a new six-inch water line.

At the September City Council meeting last week, Capri Point resident Curtis Hall came before the council and mayor Ralph Owens to request the larger line fron the two-inch line currently installed.

Hall told the board the line often has leaks and water pressure is not consistent for the residents living in that cul-de-sac.

The residents are also asking for a fire hydrant to provide better fire protection and lower their ISO rating.

City manager Gary Fesperman said the line was installed by the developer in the late 1970’s, and to remove it and put in a six-inch line would not be cost-effective for the City.

“Whenever you have  a developer installing a water line, many times they are not put in according to city specs,” said Fesperman. “In doing repairs out there, we have uncovered a number of things that were not done according to city specs. However, when we got the system from Mobile South, we go this all at one time. To put in a new six-inch line to serve the same amount of customers with no additional revenue coming in is a very costly project for the city.”

Fesperman said he and water department head James Mosley came to that conclusion after visiting Capri Point.  Mosely then came up with some cost estimates.

“For us to put in a six-inch line, run it 2,200 linear feet with six-inch tracers, install a hydrant at the end and put in the correct valves in order to get that water down there, it comes in at just 40-cents short of $35,000,” Fesperman said.

Fesperman said spending that amount of money to install a six-inch water line would not bring the city any bigger return in terms of water sales.

He then suggested that the residents of Capri Point discuss whether they would be willing to pay for the installation themselves.

Hall said about 60 homes are located in the subdivision, which would mean about $1,000 outlay per homeowner.

Hall said he would take the suggestion back to the residents.

The city council did not reject Hall’s request outright and no vote on the matter was taken.