Voting 2-1, the commissioners agreed to hold harmless Lee County Utilities Authority, which governs the rates, if the authority falls short because of the decreases and needs another infusion of cash.
At the behest of several Lee County homebuilders, the authority agreed last week to lower the rates from $4,000 to $2,600 for sewer connections and $3,000 to $2,400 for water connections, if the commission agreed to supplant the authority’s budget.
“We think it would help the builders, and overall, because the fees are so much cheaper in Dougherty County,” said Jack Daniel Garrett, a homebuilder and president of the Homebuilders Association of Albany and Southwest Georgia.
Garrett wanted another reduction in an accompanying $600 water meter fee, and several homebuilders bickered with commissioners about the actual cost of a water meter.
“We’re getting off the subject,” Commission Chairman Morris Leverett said.
Commissioner-elect Bill Williams had examined water and sewer cost recovery computations performed by the authority’s auditor and determined they did not take into account recent water and sewer rate hikes, new customers or cash from operating activities, County Administrator Alan Ours said.
With the changes, the authority could lower the connect fees and become “self-sufficient within a couple of years,” Williams said in a report Ours presented to the commission.
The sole vote against the plan came from Commissioner Dennis Roland, who said he “wasn’t against homebuilders” but opposed to taxpayers elsewhere in Lee County having to pay for water and sewer services they don’t receive.
In other business, the commission voted to approve the low bid of $8,060 for a sheriff’s department copier.
Since the bid exceeded the sheriff’s budget, the commission agreed to take the extra from personnel funds available since the recent release of two sheriff’s office personnel.
The commission tabled action on a plan to manage the county’s growing crop of 88 stormwater ponds, “until the new commission comes on board,” Leverett said.
In January, commissioners-elect Williams, Rick Muggridge and Betty Johnson will take the place of Leverett, Wally Roberts and resigned Commissioner Jo Ealum.
