Cave Spring residents call for sewer work

The upgrades are proposed during a town hall seeking SPLOST ideas.

Many Cave Spring residents made it abundantly clear what they feel should be done with the potential extension of SPLOST collections during a town hall meeting Thursday: fix the sewer lines.

“I’m tired of having a cesspool in my front yard,” said David Bailey, whose yard on Alabama Street experiences frequent sewer spillovers from manholes during periods of heavy rain. “You can imagine what it smells like ... like an open septic tank.”

Suggestions for improving sewer line infrastructure is nothing new for city council members, as they themselves are all too aware of the condition the lines are in.

“Our sewer is in dire need of some work,” Councilman Mike Ragland said. “It’s not a problem of water leaking out but water leaking in. We are going to have to fix them even if the SPLOST doesn’t go through . ... The state will get involved if we don’t do something.”

The meeting was called to get a jump on figuring out what is needed in the next special purpose, local option sales tax package, which could come before voters as soon as this fall. The current SPLOST collections run through March 31, 2019, and to continue raking in the 1-percent sales tax, voters would have to approve an extension by November 2018.

Ragland said the issue is that when significant rain sweeps through the area, excess water infiltrates sewer lines and overflows the treatment plant — boosting the water level above what can be treated, causing backups.

The council took a step forward during their regular meeting before the town hall to appoint G. Ben Turnipseed Engineers Inc. to lead a $25,000 study of the sewer system. The company will run cameras through the lines to find problem areas and draw up a plan and a cost estimate on how to prevent groundwater from seeping in.

Councilman Tom Lindsey said the state Environmental Protection Division monitors the lines but the city has put off work by paying a fine. However, he added, the EPD has now demanded something be done — the city submits monthly progress reports on work to the state agency.

Lindsey surmised that the sewer issues arise from faulty manholes, which were constructed in the ’60s.

“We don’t know if it will cost $1 million or $5 million,” Ragland said, adding that all they do know is that it will be difficult to afford without the SPLOST. He said in lieu of SPLOST funding, the city would rely on grants or loans to go through with the work.

Former Mayor Rob Ware was in attendance Thursday, taking to the podium to run over the history of the sewer lines and how the aging clay pipes are “very permeable.” But he suggested that in addition to the sewer work in the SPLOST package, the city should consider a smaller project like improving water lines — to examine the possibility of connecting to water lines near the county’s lines, in a project that would affect more residents.

The 2013 SPLOST vote was turned down by Cave Spring voters, but it passed despite them, and the city’s project has been completed — a $2.6 million rehabilitation of the historic Fannin Hall that houses city offices.

This time around Ragland believes voters will be more receptive to the project their taxes would fund.

Other suggestions for SPLOST projects included cleaning up the second story of the community center — which Winnie Morrow said is riddled with asbestos and lead paint — finding a way to draw a younger demographic to Cave Spring and making the city into a destination by renewing the effort in historic preservation to further its old-timey appeal.