FLOWERY BRANCH -- After discussing the proposal for nearly an hour, the Flowery Branch City Council narrowly voted to enter a contract for storm water renovations in the area of the upcoming new city hall at their meeting Thursday evening.
The project will be handled by Southeast Engineering, Inc and will include the construction of an underground tank under the site of the new city hall. It will also feature renovations to the surrounding blocks where city officials say detention ponds and open drainage ditches have made property unattractive to developers.
The reason the city voted to have Southeast Engineering do both projects together is, in part, because the group said they could save the city over $300,000 by doing them at the same time.
The work will cost just over $600,000 and will be paid mostly by tax allocation district money, which Flowery Branch shares with Hall County. The motion was approved 3-2, with councilmen Joe Anglin and Christopher Mundy voting against the project. Anglin said he was concerned with spending more money on what he believes is directly adding to the cost of the new city hall.
"This is part of the city hall. This is an additional $600,000 cost to the city hall project, bottom line," Anglin said. "I said early on in this whole deal, when is it going to be sticker shock? When are we going to put the brakes on this thing?"
Councilwoman Monica Beatty said she felt it made sense to pay for the project now, because the storm water work around downtown needed to be done regardless.
"If you're going to spend it later, you're saving," Beatty said. "We're going to need to (spend the money) in order for this area to grow the way we want it to grow."
City Manager Bill Andrew said at the council's meeting two weeks ago that several potential developers had told him that the poor storm water situation was one of the main problems deterring them from developing on the open lots.
Anglin said he felt like the risk of still having no development after the work was too great to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into the project.
"There hasn't been any (development in downtown) in seven years," Anglin said. "So what we're doing is we're gambling that all of this is going to come together, and you know what, I hope it does. I hope I can come back in here and y'all can tell me 'I told you so.'"
Mayor Mike Miller disagreed with Anglin, saying that holding back now would be missing a chance to reinvigorate the downtown area.
"When are we going to grow up and be a big boy city and do things proactively like a Suwanee, and take a chance to do something to make it a better place?" Miller said.
Anglin also said that engineering companies should have made the extent of the work that needed to be done known to the council before the city hall was voted on.
"This should have been seen from the get-go," Anglin said. "We're getting that information about doing it right now after we have gotten ourselves a really nice loan."
"Could've, should've, would've," Beatty said.
The project was recommended to the council by a vote from a tax allocation district advisory committee, which met the previous day. The committee featured Flowery Branch City Council members, city planning and development director Rich Atkinson and officials from the Hall County government. Hall County Commission Chairman Richard Mecum was set to be among that committee, but was unable to attend.
Andrew said work on the project could begin as soon as October.
