DEMOREST — Demorest officials say at some point soon they could begin serving a small number of water customers in northern Hall County.
The issue was one of two requests for water service discussed at Tuesday night’s Demorest City Commission work session.
The city already has water lines in place on Pea Ridge Road, serving customers to the Hall County line.
“We’ve got multiple customers that are close to our lines that are into the very edge of northern Hall County that have requested water,” Mayor Rick Austin said after the meeting. “It’s my understanding that several of these homeowners are in such a situation that they are actually having to carry water in order to flush toilets and those types of things.”
Austin said while details are not firm yet, “We’ve had a discussion with Hall County, and they have given us the verbal ok, both to me verbally and through our attorney as well, that they have no intentions of serving that area with water. Since the City of Demorest does have water pipe in that area, we are looking at moving the City of Demorest water service deeper into northern Hall County.”
Again, specifics remain to be determined, but Austin said officials have given the city some boundaries for service along Pea Ridge Road.
“Fact is, Hall County has said that we can go up to Belton Bridge, which would take us fairly deep into northern Hall County,” Austin said. “Really, it’s not about growing a system necessarily but more about, in my mind, meeting people’s needs. There’s not a lot of customers that are out there, but there are people that are certainly hurting for water to do their day-to-day activities – simple things like take a bath or cook a meal or flush a commode. We’re going to do everything we can to try to meet those needs.”
One of the potential customers Austin identified is Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, located about a mile inside Hall County on Pea Ridge Road.
“One of those is a church congregation, and obviously if we can get water in that particular area and fire protection [though hydrants], that would be certainly something that we would like to be able to help that particular congregation out with,” Austin said. “We’re going to do our best to accommodate them as well.”
Austin said extending existing service to provide water to an area where people need it is the right thing to do since the city has that ability.
“It’s just part of what I consider to being good neighbors, and we intend to be good neighbor, not only in Habersham County but to our new friends in northern Hall County,” Austin said.
Editor's note: Mayor Austin did not specify which Hall County leaders he spoke with about water provision, but it should be noted that Hall County government does not offer water service. The city of Gainesville's water system would encompass the area in question.
