Mayor Presents Counter Proposal on Water Contracts

Cumming and Forsyth County still seem miles apart in an ongoing water contracts battle with less than three weeks left in the current contract.

In a special called meeting Monday, Mayor H. Ford Gravitt presented the city's counter proposal seeking to replace the current contract, which is set to expire on May 26.

Gravitt thanked Commission Chairman Jim Boff for attending the meeting and sending the proposal over but said, "Even though it's not something that you expect us to agree with."

The mayor's proposal asks Forsyth County to pay five times as much for raw water as the current contract's rates.

Cumming City Council approved sending the mayor's proposal to the county, which also asks for an $11.4 million invoice to be paid for the county's share of a raw water intake facility, built by the city in 2009, on Lake Lanier. But the city doesn't want to give up any ownership of that facility, even though the county will be paying 65 percent of the costs to use it. The mayor calls the payment an allocation fee.

"This is the total daily withdrawal from the intake that the city owns at Lake Lanier," said Gravitt. "This allocation fee is not ownership, it's ownership of up to 65 million gallons of water a day that the county could get."

The mayor said it would be "real simple" if the city and county could join him on the proposal.

"The city water system is an enterprise system and it's not for sale," he said. "We have 17,000 customers and I don't think any of them wants to give up their ownership in this water system."

Chairman Boff told Cumming Patch that his personal impression of the mayor's proposal, especially the $11.4 million invoice, was an "undoable package."

"That he wants money for finished, raw, and no ownership for the 11 million dollars, to me it's a no-starter," Boff said.

Boff planned to discuss the mayor's proposal with the board of commissioners as soon as they received their copies.

Cumming has an Environmental Protection Division permit to withdraw water from Lake Lanier and for years has been the county's primary water supplier.

After several days of working with city staff reviewing the county's proposal, sent to the city late last month, which the mayor did not disclose, the following counter proposal was presented:

Current Contract (expires May 26)

• 10 cents per 1,000 gallons of raw water.

• $2.43 per 1,000 gallons of treated water.

Latest City Proposal (approved by City Council May 7)

Treated Water

• 5-year contract with tiered price structure.

• 1.2 billion gallons of water annually, up to 3.33 million gallons per day, at a rate of $2.25 per 1,000 gallons.

• Once the 3.33 million gallons of water per day peaks, the price would go up to $2.40 per 1,000 gallons for the next 3.33 million gallons of water used per day.

• After 6.66 million gallons in a single day, the rate increases to $3.60 per 1,000 gallons.

Raw Water

• 10-year contract with tiered price structure.

• 3.25 billion gallons of water a year at $.50 per 1,000 gallons used per day.

• After 3.25 billion gallons, the price would increase to $.75 per 1,000 gallons per day.

The council, hearing Gravitt's suggestions on the water contracts for the first time, voted 5-0 to send the counter proposal to the county commissioners for their review. He said the board would have a copy by Monday afternoon.

Council member Quincy Holton said he was hopeful the city and county would be able to work together on a contract, but he said, "We're not giving it away."