Powder Springs council OKs sale of water system to Cobb

For the AJC

The Powder Springs City Council voted 3-2 recently to approve the sale of its water and sewer systems to Cobb County.

To discuss more of these details and the State of the City, a Powder Springs Town Hall meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Ford Center Reception Hall, 4181 Atlanta St., behind the library.

Also, a public hearing specifically on this matter will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 4 during a regularly scheduled council meeting in council chambers, Community Development Building, 4488 Pineview Drive, next to City Hall.

Opposed were Councilwomen Nancy Farmer and Patricia Wisdom with Farmer wanting postponement “for citizens to understand why it’s in their best interest.”

Agreeing, Wisdom said, “My questions have not been answered.”

Mayor Al Thurm an responded, “We’ve had many discussions already. There will be a savings of $30 million in infrastructure repair. Residents will save 25 per- cent to 100 percent on their water bills.”

Countering, Farmer said, “That $30 million figure is wrong.”

Later, Farmer told The AJC that residents will have to pay for their own irriga- tion — no longer the city and not the county.

The $5.5 million sale will be closed in April with $550,000 payments from Cobb to Pow- der Springs each year for 10 years, using the increased revenue from city customers to make the payments. Also, eight city employees of the water department will become employees of the Cobb County Water Department.

Cobb County Water System Director Steve McCullers told commissioners, who voted 5-0 in favor in Decem- ber, that the deal will move 7,500 customers into the Cobb system, where rates are 30 percent lower.