Chickamauga readies for $2.2 million water project
Grants could fund majority of $2.2 million infrastructure improvement plan
Chickamauga’s elected officials are aware of the fact their city’s water system infrastructure needs major upgrades, possibly to the tune of $2.2-$2.4 million.
How to pay for such a wide-ranging project has yet to be determined, but the process of securing grants that will fund the majority of that critically needed work is underway.
It’s been nearly a year to the day since the city council approved having consultant Angela Steedley and CTI Engineering prepare a preliminary engineering report that would allow pursuing grants to fund the necessary upgrades.
On Aug. 8, 2016, Steedley presented a preliminary report on potential funding sources to the council.
Currently, the city’s water stor- age tank can hold less than one day’s usual usage, about half what is considered acceptable.
Even more critical is the need to improve flow rates to commercial customers along U.S. Highway 27, roughly the area between the SI/Shaw plant and the Food Lion shopping center.
“We’ve got to get water to the highway,” Councilman Daymon Garrett said.
City Manager Micheal Haney reminded the council of a cascading series of near-catastrophic events that occurred two years ago. A ruptured water main near the city schools deprived some residents of water for 20 hours during the Christmas holidays; lightning fried a pump at the city’s well; and a 6-inch main broke and disrupted traffic along the highway.
Problems also arose when a faulty valve near the Food Lion resulted in the city drawing about 200,000 gal- lons of water from the Walker County water system — which the city had to pay for.
Without a “loop system” that provides redundant means of delivery, there are liability issues if there is insufficient water flow or pressure to serve fire hydrants and sprinkler systems.
“We have to provide the water we’ve promised for development along the highway,” Haney said. “It doesn’t matter how much we can pump (to the storage tank) if we can’t deliver water.”
Improvements to the water system are partly necessary to handle growth and current code requirements, but are also due to some of the city’s water lines having been in service since the 1940s.
Steedley advised the council that in a “best case scenario” an “aggressive funding package” combining federal, state and regional grants could provide all but about $484,000 of the overall cost.
“That would add about $1.14 per month to each customer’s water bill,” she said. Haney said the city hopes to obtain $750,000 of community development block grant funds, a $300,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, a $300,000 EDA grant, a $204,000 principal forgiveness loan from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority and $144,000 of voter-approved special purpose local option sales tax revenue.
The city manager said these water system improvements will be done as a single piece, not piecemeal, and will not begin until that “aggressive funding” has been secured.
The council gave the go-ahead for Steedley to begin applications for any and all grants that might help fund this necessary project.