Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority board members have approved an operating budget of $6.1 million for the authority’s 2024-25 fiscal year, which starts July 1. The 2024-25 budget is up nearly $660,000 from the current year’s budget of just over $5.4 million.
“While we are seeing inflationary increases pretty much across the board, the three major contributors to the increase in the operating budget are wages, electricity costs and chemical costs,” said Gary McVey, water authority director.
About a list of anticipated capital improvement projects for the coming fiscal year, McVey said, “There’s a lot of projects on there. We’re trying to get through with some of these higher dollar projects, mainly the water tank off Roundtop Road. (That and) the pump station we’re going to need to support the tank are going to be pretty expensive. The remainder of the projects are good projects that need to be done. Most can be started and finished in the next budget year.”
The Roundtop water tank, which will be used to supply water to parts of the county where the system is still being expanded, probably won’t be totally finished until the 2025-26 budget year, McVey told board members Billy Rowe, Hubert Parker, Tony Whitaker, Ricky Wimpey and David Westmoreland during a May 28 board meeting.
The water authority has until the end of calendar year 2026 to use $1 million in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for the tank project.
“They told me to figure on 18 months (to complete it),” McVey said. “I’d just about jump up and down if they could get it done in 18 months. There are two (contractors) in the area that can bid.”
McVey said some anticipated increases in revenue are not reflected in the 2024-25 budget, including selling more water to Pickens County with a new interconnection in the Mt Pisgah Road area, but they should be seen within the coming fiscal year.
“We (also) just completed almost 100 taps out Roundtop Road. A lot of people are still getting their lines hooked up, and I expect all those to be done pretty quickly,” he added.
The water authority will be continuing work in the Roundtop area during the next fiscal year, which will include working on the third phase of the system expansion.
“Phase III consists of installing approximately 9,400 linear feet of 12-inch ductile iron water main connecting Roundtop Road and Highway 382 via Knight Road and Barnes Mountain Road. The new 500,000-gallon water tank and booster pump station are also part of this project,” McVey said.
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Paving over cuts in roadways where a new water line was installed through downtown Ellijay is one of the last items at hand for the project, which included parts of South Main Street, River Street, Church Street and Spring Street.
“It is imperative, since River Street is a GDOT roadway, that the cuts be concreted and asphalted in a timely manner. The road cuts, damage to the streetscape and final cleanup remains for project completion,” McVey noted.