City, County Far Apart on Water Contract

The front doors to Cumming City Hall and Forsyth County's Administration Building are separated by little more than the width of Main Street but when it comes to negotiations over a water contract, the officials who occupy those buildings are light years apart.

The original contract which allows the county to buy its water from the city was first approved in 1987. It's been amended several times since but never renewed or renegotiated and it is set to expire in May.

At 2 p.m. Thursday, Mayor Ford Gravitt held a press conference to get a few things off his chest.

At 6 p.m., Commission Chairman Jim Boff and Commissioner Todd Levent held a town hall meeting on the same topic. The mayor declined an invitation to attend the commissioners' meeting and commissioners say they weren't invited to the mayor's press conference.

Gravitt explained his refusal to attend by saying, "First of all, there has been no due diligence done by the board over there. They don't have a consensus of what they want to do as far as renewing the contract or drawing up a new contract."

The mayor was also clearly angered by the county's refusal to pay $11.4 million he says is owed on its share of a new raw water intake facility on Lake Lanier and the fact the county has never proposed a new contract.

"In the four or five years we've talked, there has never been a proposal made to the city of Cumming," he said.

Gravitt vigorously defended the rates the city charges for water -- 10 cents per 1,000 gallons of raw water and $2.43 per 1,000 gallons of treated water. He said if county officials aren't happy with those rates, they have other options.

Those options, he said, include building their own reservoir on the Etowah River at a cost of $52 million or building a pipeline to Gwinnett County, which he said would cost about $13.5 million, and paying in excess of $3 per 1,000 gallons.

"But they're not financially feasible," he added.

Asked if the city plans to increase the county's water rate if the contract expires, the mayor responded, "drastically."

In a brief interview before commissioners started their town hall meeting, Levent had a very different take on why talks have not taken place.

"He told us he wouldn't talk to us until the county pays him $11.4 million," Levent said. "Both our staff and our attorney say we never agreed to pay anything for that facility and we don't owe the city anything. We'd have to be crazy to pay $11 million dollars and not have any ownership. Who would do that?"

Boff said the mayor is wrong about the county's not having made a proposal. He said the county had made at least two proposals in recent years and he added that he and Levent have drafted separate proposals they hope to make following a public hearing on the issue next Thursday.

But those proposals could be placed on the back burner if the other commissioners vote to extend the contract to October as expected.

Commissioners Brian Tam, Patrick Bell and Pete Amos voted for the extension during last week's work session, but a vote on an intergovernmental agreement requires four votes for approval or a public hearing. After one public hearing an agreement can be ratified with just three votes.

The public hearing has been set for Thursday, April 5.