Lets try to put it in perspective. The continued lack of vision and political will on the part of the commission has been, is and will cause commercial and industrial prospects to locate in our neighboring counties. The lifeblood of any community depends on economic development. We are not working together as elected officials to forge the partnership needed to succeed as a community. There is no unified vision.
There can be compromise. If leadership and vision do not happen soon, it will take us years to recover economically from the arguing and bickering we see now. Lawsuits, arbitration and just plain finger pointing is penalizing our children's future.
I have a solution-a compromise to propose. We'll call it "The Gainey Seven Points of Light". The points are as follows:
·Maintain the South Hall Sewer Authority-give it a chance to work.
·Add four additional Hall County Representatives (this gives Hall County six or 38% of the total 16 member board after the addition of the new members.
·Ownership of the Flowery Branch Sewer Plant revert back to the County. The County will forgive the debt and lease the facility for one dollar a year. The Sewer Authority would operate and maintain the facility.
·Use the $17 million in SPLOST funds that was originally designated for South Hall Sewer in 1998 for sewer lines on Friendship Rd., McEver Rd. and other strategic areas like Winder Highway to stop annexation by Buford and Braselton.
·Hall County can lease the lines to the Sewer Authority and maintain ownership assuming this can be worked out in an intergovernmental agreement.
·Buy sewer capacity from the City of Gainesville (this was one of the purposes of the SPLOST in 1998). $16.6 million was to go to the City of Gainesville to help improve the Linwood and Flat Creek Sewer Plants and provide capacity for Hall County. This capacity should be used for commercial/industrial sewer.
·Move forward with limited, quality residential sewer projects on land application facilities.
Using this approach will give us the dual approach ((Residential and Commercial/Industrial)with most of the capacity at the Flowery Branch Sewer Plant being committed to commercial/industrial treatment and all of the purchased capacity from the city going to commercial/industrial use. Land Application projects can be built and paid for by developers or investors for residential use. It seems unlikely that Hall County will be able to obtain its own sewer discharge permit from the EPD any time in the foreseeable future.
We need to live within our means. We need to "go with what deck of cards we've been dealt". We've got to have a vision with dedicated leadership.
Remember what we read in Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish". Godly advice from a perfect Man and taken from an inerrant Word. Let's work together, find common ground and move forward together!!
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/8/191778