DEMOREST — The City of Demorest has completed a water line interconnection with the Town of Mt. Airy.
Officials from the two municipalities began discussions about the interconnection to supply the Town of Mt. Airy with water, “particularly to the north end of their city limits,” said Demorest Mayor Rick Austin. “That connection now has been accomplished, and it’s one of those complicated issues that there were pipes running in a lot of different directions.”
Officials from Demorest and Mt. Airy worked through that issue and get the proper pipes connected for the supply of water.
“We now have the ability to be able to move water into the town of Mt. Airy to assist them,” Austin said.
Austin praised Demorest Public Works Director Bryan Popham for saving the city thousands of dollars by working with a local business to obtain a vault to protect the interconnection.
“The box that was going to be required to envelope that connection is called a vault, and that vault was going to run us about $15,000,” Austin said. “Because of the resources and the knowledge that our public works director has, he was able to get one fabricated for about $1,200, which saves us an exorbitant amount of money, and we’re thankful for his thinking quickly on his feet to save us money.”
With the new interconnection with the Town of Mt. Airy, Demorest can supply water to three of Habersham County’s other six municipalities.
“We already supply water to the Town of Alto,” Austin said. “With the interconnect that we have now and an agreement that is forthcoming with the Town of Mt. Airy, we will be helping them with their water issues. And then the City of Clarkesville has already signed an intergovernmental agreement to allow us to supply them with water. They are dealing with some reconstruction issues within their water plant, and they just wanted to make sure that they had the ability to continue to supply water to their customers. So that interconnect has been made, and again they’ve signed that agreement and we will solidify that agreement next week, so we do sell to and help provide [water to] neighbors, not only in Alto and Mt. Airy, but now Clarkesville also. We’re happy to do so.”
Intergovernmental agreements with Clarkesville and Mt. Airy will appear on next Tuesday’s Demorest City Council meeting agenda.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/4/529014/demorest-completes-water-connection-with-mt-airy