Federal funds could help reduce expected water rate hikes

ALBANY — $Seventeen million … $22 million … $65 million. Those are the sums anticipated for Dougherty County, the city of Albany and the Dougherty County School System, respectively, from recently enacted federal legislation.

“This is a godsend,” Albany Mayor Bo Dorough said on Tuesday after a morning meeting with U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in downtown Albany.

The money from the American Rescue Plan Act, signed on March 11 by President Biden, will go a long way toward addressing the city’s antiquated combined stormwater/sewage system, the mayor said.

The estimated total for separating the systems and installing new equipment is $300 million, but more pressing is a five-year deadline to come into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act at a cost of about $105 million.

“In a heavy rain event, we release millions of gallons of effluent into the Flint River,” Dorough said during a news conference held after a meeting with the Democratic senator, who won election in November.

Others who attended the meeting at the Albany Convention and Visitors Bureau included Dougherty County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas, Dougherty County Schools Superintendent Ken Dyer, Barbara Rivera Holmes, the president and CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, and Scott Steiner, president and CEO of the Phoebe Putney Health System.

During a retreat held by the Albany City Commission earlier this month, Dorough said, the body was given a recommendation that included spending 40 percent of proceeds from the next special-purpose local-option sales tax on the system and a hefty increase in customers’ water rates.

Some of the $22 million earmarked for Albany can go toward cushioning those blows.

“When you talk about spending 40 percent of SPLOST … that’s money you could have spent on recreation and all the other projects,” Dorough said during a telephone interview after the news conference. “The proposal was a 5 percent increase for five years on water rates, which is more than 25 percent (total). With this funding, we’ll be able to reduce the amount of the increase of those monthly fees.”

The funds made available to cities and counties across the country will “lay the foundation for a robust economic recovery,” Ossoff said. “This community has been hit so, so hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. This was one of the hardest-hit places on this earth.”

The legislation also will increase the production and distribution of vaccines, he said.

The discussion with Ossoff and other community leaders was freewheeling and touched on much more than the American Rescue Plan Act, Cohilas said. Underlying health issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure played a major role in the morbidity of the disease that claimed the lives of more than 375 residents.

“We also have other issues within our community we need to address,” Cohilas said. “First, we have a large number of people who live here in poverty. We talked about our major employers and the need to support them. We need infrastructure to build out.”

As for the school system, the allocation will go toward academic and non-academic assistance for students, Dyer said during an interview following the news conference. Dyer said he has asked principals to draft a list of needs that they have for their schools and to engage parents in the process.

“We want to make sure we meet the needs of the parents,” Dyer said. “The pandemic has not only unleashed havoc with our being able to provide instruction, but also (of concern are the) the social and emotional and mental health needs of our students themselves.”

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]

Staff Photos: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]