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Winder refuses to move water line for county road project

Posted by

Mike Buffington

in Top Stories & Breaking News, Winder Archives

Wednesday, April 4. 2012

Comments (23)

Barrow County’s government this week is opening the bids for the paving of the newly redesigned intersection of Hoyt King Road and Highway 81, but whether the contractor can finish the work by the state’s June 9 deadline is in question. County engineering manager Darrell Greeson said Tuesday that he and other county officials have made no progress in convincing Winder officials to shoulder any of the $55,000 cost of relocating hundreds of feet of the city’s water line for the project. The cost is that high because city officials want the county to replace 1,200 linear feet of municipal water line — the entire length of the project — rather than the 400 linear feet actually in conflict with the roadwork, Greeson said.

Winder’s water service area extends far beyond the city’s borders and non-city residents pay far more for water service than do city residents. But city officials say Winder should not have to pay to relocates lines for another government’s road improvement.

“We are willing to allow them to move our utilities and are not opposed to having them moved,” said city administrator Don Toms in an email. “However, the City does not have money budgeted for these projects. If the City was to pay for these (unbudgeted) projects for the County, we would not be able to complete other projects we currently have scheduled and have been planning for years.”

For the full story, see the April 4 issue of the Barrow Journal.

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#1 Did the County do their due diligence?? Appears not on 04/04/12 at 03:15 PM [Reply]

Did the County contact the City in advance so the City could PLAN for this? I bet they didn't so I think the city has a point. If you want me to pay for a huge unplanned expense you better give me advanced notice to...I put off things I can pay for, so this is an example of bad planning and communication on the County's part.

#1.1 Knew for over a year on 04/04/12 at 03:43 PM [Reply]

Yes, the County notified the City of this over a year ago.

#1.1.1 So what, there is more than just notification needed... on 04/04/12 at 04:11 PM [Reply]

And... It is great that I am told but If I dont have money in MY BUDGET because you have a special project YOU WANT to do, You need to either pay for it or coordinate/neogotiate about when and if the funds may be available. It is more than just "Notifying" if you need something from another entity unless you can sustain the project yourself.

#1.2 brad on 04/05/12 at 10:23 PM [Reply]

How exactly do you get "advanced notice" for an "unplanned expense"?

#1.2.1 Well Brad, lets see... on 04/05/12 at 11:10 PM [Reply]

The county planned, budgeted, and decided on this project, and Assumed or Desired that since THEY decided on a road project that all others would just have to suck it up and help them pay for it. So the unplanned expense, not in the approved budget was Winder's part the county didnt want to pay for, the County decided their project was a go reguardless, without anyone elses agreement or committment to pay any portion, quite arrogantly it seems, the city's budget was done without $55,000 set aside for a COUNTY project, so the county seems to have Failed in communications with the City...

#2 County Lack of Planning or just want someone else to pay?? on 04/04/12 at 06:49 PM [Reply]

Ok, then Annex that into the City and they will have no choice but pay for it otherwise...

That is a Long Range Planning issue, and the County went forward WITHOUT a commitment from the City to pay for any portion of the County Project.

#3 WRONG HEADLINE on 04/04/12 at 06:52 PM [Reply]

Headline Should Read: City Refuses to PAY to move Water line for County Project...

I didnt NOTICE the BIAS by the Barrow Journal until I thought about it, Nice Slant on that BJ, sortof like main stream liberal media does Conservatives. So I will have to watch for more Anti-City Reporting here.

#3.1 headline IS inacurate on 04/05/12 at 10:16 PM [Reply]

The headline is slanted, it makes it clearly obvious which SIDE of the story the Journal is on, therefore it is Biased. I thought that the BJ would be more neutral, report the story with a more accurate headline, the City did NOT say the water line could not be moved or refuse to allow it to be moved, as the headline IMPLIES, they said they werent PAYING for it, So it is a slanted, inacurate headline in favor of the counties point of view. (shame on the Journal, there are two sides here, report the stories fairly!!)

#4 Anonymous on 04/05/12 at 07:49 AM [Reply]

I live on that street and what was the purpose of restructuring the road . . was it the bad curve that made people slow down before getting to the stop sign.
Why can't they spend money doing better things like side walks on Haymon Morris Road since there are three schools next door to one another and alot of kids are walking on that street.
I don't understand what our elected officials are thinking sometimes but they are making a good attempt of screwing things up more so than they already are.

#5 Anonymous on 04/05/12 at 08:04 AM [Reply]

The County is paying the City one million dollars a year for the Garrison "Historic" sewer agreement, where we currently have no taps, and the City wants to play hard ball over 400 feet of water line? Maybe we should pay the full price for the line, but Winder will be paying FULL price for water to put into the line! Hey Winder, you can't have your cake and eat it too!!!

#6 Anonymous on 04/05/12 at 12:47 PM [Reply]

No doubt that the county should pay for the 400 linear feet that it wants to move. The county wants to do the project, not the city. The city shouldn't have to pay for any of that project unless it agreed to do so from the start.

The real question is, why is the city INSISTING that the county pay to replace the ENTIRE 1200 linear feet, when the county isn't TOUCHING those other parts of the line???

Who's REALLY the ones playing dirty here?

#7 come on winder on 04/05/12 at 06:27 PM [Reply]

help the county, they are broke. Winder has millions in reserve funds but they out of money, dont think so

#8 Joe L on 04/05/12 at 08:37 PM [Reply]

Stick to your guns City, the County takes tax money from City residents to pay for stuff in the County. As far as I am concerned the City has already paid for this project. Did windsteam move the poles for free.

Yes, City residents pay the same amount of County tax as County residents. What was the last road the County fixed in Winder.

#9 Anonymous on 04/05/12 at 08:40 PM [Reply]

The County is broke because they spent too much money on their engineer then fired them and had to pay for another engineer. Google the story!!

We need roads fixed in Winder also. Don't pay them a penny

#9.1 Jane on 04/05/12 at 08:51 PM [Reply]

The City of Winder no longer has a Penny either. If they did, I'm sure they would have given the County all the Pennies they had.

#10 Alice on 04/05/12 at 08:43 PM [Reply]

Winder has NO money because they cannot collect their money from the chicken farmers. Let the chicken farms pay to move the water lines.

#11 George on 04/05/12 at 08:48 PM [Reply]

Danny has the money, the BJ said they will end the budget in the black by $1.7 million. Just ask Rose.

#12 Joe balcom on 04/06/12 at 09:11 AM [Reply]

How much did they pay Georgia Power, Windstream, or Charter to move? Bet the price to replace the bulldozer would have covered the price of the waterlines.

#13 Anonymous on 04/06/12 at 10:57 AM [Reply]

What about the City's gas line on the opposite side of the road....that now has 20+ ft of fill dirt on top of it now???? What's the difference?!

#14 Anonymous on 04/08/12 at 11:08 AM [Reply]

The county needs to be disolved and split by winder and the others. This would save us money like Athens. Let the people vote

#14.1 Anonymous on 04/08/12 at 12:58 PM [Reply]

How can you be for the dissolution of anything when you cannot even spell "dissolved"? Instead, how about the abolition of illiterate people? And, BTW, for the record, Clarke county wasn't "dissolved." Consolidation is the more accurate term for what occurred. And, the circumstances were quite a bit different in that locus than what prevails in Barrow.
Geography, municipalities et cetera.

#14.2 Anonymous on 04/08/12 at 11:51 PM [Reply]

Actually, The City of Athens ceased to exist technically in 1991, when the city was disbanded in favor of a county consolidated government, so the former City of Athens was dissolved and a City-County Government formed that included the entire Unincorporated Clarke County and what was formally in the Athens City limits to create the Athens-Clarke County Government, the other cities still exist independently and the County is still Clarke County but the A-C Gov't runs everything not in another town/city, just the Athens City itself did not survive technically speaking. It is still known as Athens, but there is no city limits or city Police, mayor, etc. now.)

What this did was create a single government that runs everything except for the portions inside the other existing cities, and the A-C police may still serve those towns without there own "like" a county police dept. The County is still "Clarke County" (the Sheriff is the Sheriff of Clarke County, etc) but the operating government is known as the "Athens-Clarke Unified Government"

#15 tom on 04/15/12 at 08:02 AM [Reply]

Merge the city and county, less tax and no dumbwood. The county needs to find the money.

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