Even though Lula City Manager Dennis Bergin told officials from other Hall County municipalities Lula "doesn't want you to fight our battle for us," he and the Lula City Council have asked those officials to support them as they seek to enforce a 2006 intergovernmental sewer agreement with Hall County.
Bergin, on behalf of Lula City Council, invited representatives to meet Tuesday at the Flowery Branch Depot so they could hear the same outline presented at a meeting in Lula more than two weeks ago. At that meeting, council members announced their intentions to go to court if Hall County refused to sit down and discuss the 2006 agreement.
Elected officials from Clermont, Flowery Branch, Gillsville and Oakwood attended the two-hour session, along with Lula Mayor Milton Turner, four members of the Lula Council and Bergin.
Bergin laid out Lula's concerns about Hall County's apparent encroachment on the area meant to be served by Lula's $14 million wastewater treatment facility, located on property just off Ga. 52 west of Ga. 365.
"In this case [sewer on Ga. 365] they're trying to rush by putting dry manholes in the ground that they don't even have pump stations for," Bergin said, referring to a sewer line the county has apparently contracted for that intersection. "If we as a whole group don't stop them from duplicating services and crossing our lines now, that's going to worry you guys, isn't it?" Bergin continued.
"Y'all have got to see collectively how stopping them here also stops them with you. Imagine the empowerment if they're successful...with stopping Lula's growth. Who's next?"
Oakwood City Manager Stan Brown told the group he understood why Lula wanted to protect its $14 million dollar investment. He also said he thinks the issue is not about sewer service, but about land use control.
"The real simple argument is you guys built a plant. That plant is set up to serve what is the Lula-Hall District and the Lula District. In order to recoup your investment - that you stuck your neck out and made - you need [all of] that to be your district," Brown said.
Brown noted that whatever the cities decide to do when it comes to signing a future service agreement with Hall County, it should be done with citizens in mind.
"[Whatever we do] we need to do it on the basis of what makes good sense for the taxpayers," Brown said. "Where you guys [Lula] have made the investment, we've got to look at it as if it were us. If it was turned around the other way, and they want to carve out part of what you're set up to serve, you'd be in the same boat that Lula's in today."
Bergin told those in attendance he also had plans to have discussions with Braselton and Gainesville city officials, who were not at Tuesday's meeting.
Also last week, Lula City Council met in executive session to further discuss litigation should the city not come to a solution over the 2006 sewer agreement with Hall County.
"No action was taken after the executive session," Bergin wrote in a Friday email. "Our effort remains to try and communicate the savings and benefits of working with Hall County that combined efforts will assure saving to the county taxpayers and rate payers resulting in savings now and into the future. We just need to get all parties in the same room and let the facts speak to the issues."
