However, his hands have been tied, he said, as he tries to find the parts to keep the system working, knowing the county still owes $1.08 million dollars on it. In addition, said Rearden, the equipment has aged to a point where parts are no longer available to repair the system.
At Monday afternoon's Hall County Commission work session, Rearden told commissioners he's at a point where action has to be taken.
Rearden said the commission in office in 2000 took out a loan with the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) for more than $2.1 million. What he's hoping to do now is refinance the loan.
"We addressed that loan with GEFA - their rate when we took out the loan in 2000 was 4.92%, they're 2.4% today's rate," said Rearden. "They've [GEFA] never done this before, but they can possibly refinance the initial loan and add to the loan to give us the extra [money] we need to build this facility."
Rearden said he needs an answer by GEFA by the end of the month, since the system is struggling and the county is renting a system to process the leachate. In addition, the county is spending money for someone to haul off the sludge to another landfill outside the county.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/4/260236