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Geraldine sewer talks continue

By Mark Harrison
The Times-Journal

Published August 25, 2009

The Rainsville City Council continued discussion Monday about the possibility of allowing Geraldine to tie onto a sewer line in Fyffe that runs from there into Rainsville’s wastewater management system.

The council held a work session with members of the city’s sewer board to discuss the project, its possible cost and impact.

The council reached no consensus at Monday’s work session, although at least one councilmember – David Shirey – said he believes the connection should be allowed.

Still at issue, however, is what base usage rate Rainsville should charge and also whether the town of Geraldine should be charged an additional tie-on fee.

The council discussed the possibility of assessing such a fee based on a percentage of the remaining debt against Rainsville’s wastewater treatment plant, about $3 million. Councilman Fred Bobo suggested charging 3 percent against that debt, which he said, “really is not a lot of money.”

Several council members pointed out that there are still some areas of Rainsville not on the sewer system, mainly because those areas are rock heavy and the city lacks funds to provide necessary manpower and equipment to install lines in such terrain. The addition of more customers could increase revenue in Rainsville related to the wastewater treatment system, which is currently operating in the red. Ladd said the addition of Geraldine customers alone probably wouldn’t change that, but both he and Rainsville Mayor Donnie Chandler have said more volume could generate more revenue.

Bobo compared the proposed tie-on to leasing a car.

“If you lease a car, do you just pay to put gas in it or do you also have to make installment payments?” he said. “Let’s lease it to them, but let’s make sure we charge for gas.”

Ladd engineer Larry Whitely attended Monday’s work session and repeated a recommendation that the council allow Geraldine to tie-on to the wastewater management system. He said the system could handle the extra load. He said Geraldine would use about 40,000 gallons a day and Rainsville’s plant could handle the load.

Chandler said Rainsville’s wastewater treatment plant has a maximum capacity of about 1.5 million gallons per day, and about 400,000 gallons are now pumped in daily from the areas it services, which includes Rainsville, Fyffe, Sylvania, Powell and Northeast Alabama Community College.

Geraldine Mayor Billy Smothers recently asked Rainsville officials to consider allowing Geraldine to tie onto a sewer line in Fyffe that runs from there into Rainsville’s wastewater treatment plant.

Chandler said although the line is owned by Section Water Works, the Rainsville City Council must consent to the tie-on since Rainsville’s treatment plant would be the facility responsible for handling the extra volume.

Smothers earlier said if Rainsville signs off on the project, Geraldine would apply for grant money to pay the cost of running sewer lines along Highway 75 from Geraldine to Fyffe. Smothers said the exact cost of the project has yet to be determined, but estimates it could run “several million dollars.” He said the town has not applied for money as yet.

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