Members of the Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority board of directors heard updates on some current water system improvement projects when meeting briefly last week.
A systemwide change out from manually-read to digitally-read water meters for customers is nearing an end, but may not be totally done this year to various things, noted Gary McVey, water authority director.
McVey said only three routes remain after the current ones being worked on are done. They include East Ellijay and the Highlands area off Highway 515. The meter change out is 84 percent complete with a total of 5,515 meters having been changed thus far, he added.
“I’d love to see this completed before the end of the calendar year if we could, but in the city, there’s a lot of meter boxes in concrete, and it will slow way down at that point,” McVey said. “We’re still going to try to get it done by the end of the calendar year unless we run out of material.”
Supply chain issues and material shortages have previously slowed the large-scale meter change out. McVey said, lately, wires for the meters have been in short supply.
“They owe us about 300 wires, (and) they’re telling us it will probably be January before we get them. We do have enough wires to at least get these next routes done. We’re going to keep moving until we run out,” he added.
Installation of new water line along South Main Street was slowed by the contracted crew recently having to jackhammer through rock that was in the way, McVey noted. The water line is being laid directly beneath the center of South Main Street in most areas.
“The contractor had installed 828 feet since our last meeting, as of last Thursday. They encountered some pretty significant rock, about 30-40 feet, but they got it out,” McVey said.
Repairing several service leaks in the City of Ellijay zone has resulted in less water being lost in that particular service area, McVey noted. In July, 182 gallons a minute was being lost in the city zone, but in August the loss figure was down to 53.85 gallons a minute.
“That’s where the majority of our water loss is. There were two fairly significant leaks, along with some smaller service leaks, that were repaired between July and August that significantly decreased the water loss in the City of Ellijay, at least for now,” McVey said.
In other news ...
﹣ Positions on the water and sewer board will not be reshuffled for the time being, following the recent passing of longtime board chairman Mike Gibbs.
Gibbs, who passed away last month, had been a board member for 22 years and the board’s chairman since 2013.
It will be up to the City of Ellijay to appoint a new member to represent Ellijay on the five-person board, which includes three county representatives and one each for Ellijay and East Ellijay.
Billy Rowe, the board’s vice chairman, lead the September meeting, and the future makeup of the board will be addressed after a fifth member is appointed.