Thursday, September 7, 2023–12:21 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
With continued growth anticipated along the Highway 411 corridor, sewer service in the area continues to be a much-discussed topic for the City of Rome.
On Thursday, the Rome Water and Sewer Committee members got an update regarding a couple of properties off Highway 411 that want access to city sewer.
One being the parcel that’s directly across from Tractor Supply owned by the Evans family,” said Rome City Manager Sammy Rich. “To the east of there is another privately-owned tract that has recently been sold for a new car wash.”
The closest manhole, where sewer currently terminates, is behind the East Rome Walmart. The estimate to connect to the Evans property is just over a million dollars. The line extension for the car wash is estimated at around $500,000. Those costs would be the responsibility of the property owners, not the City of Rome.
“That’s one of the things that we in the community have spent a lot of time talking about,” Rich said. “Typically, when there is a development that takes place that developer is in charge of making sure he has access to and connection to the local provider of utilities, in this case, Rome Water and Sewer. We have infrastructure in the area, but in this case, we don’t actually go out and run the sewer to the property line for the development.”
Thursday’s discussion eventually came back around to the extension of sewer to the nearby Chulio Hills neighborhood. A number of residents have been petitioning the city for sewer service, saying it was promised to them 40 years ago. The estimated cost has been listed at around $3.2 million. However, with the rising costs of construction, Assistant Rome Water and Sewer Services Division Director Jon Boyd said the project would likely bid out at $5 million to $6 million.
That does not include a tap fee of $1,800 per home and an estimated $3,000 to $5,000 per home for plumbing, plus the monthly bill, which would all be the responsibility of the homeowner.
The committee discussed inviting Chulio Hills homeowners to a future meeting to get an idea of how many would be willing to tap into sewer if the service was expanded. Some have already signed up to speak during the next Rome City Commission meeting this Monday.
The citizen’s SPLOST committee did not include a proposal for sewer expansion to Chulio Hills as part of the final list of projects to be included in a special purpose, local option sales tax referendum in November. The committee did approve $4.5 million for sewer expansion to Enterprise Corner off of Highway 411 for future economic development. Rich explained how that project is different.
“We’re talking about running the sewer infrastructure along 411, and of course, that’s part of the City of Rome’s service district,” he said. “That means we have water and sewer service, and our friends with Floyd County offer water for sale, so we basically have districts that divide up parts of the community. So, those would be our customers on the 411 corridor to serve and to sell water to.”
According to Rich, having water and sewer infrastructure all the way out to the 200-acre Enterprise Corner site is important in order to attract companies looking for a place to set up shop.
“Part of our duty is to get that property ready by having water and sewer utilities there and ready to go,” he said. “Economic prospect activity had been high with the EV plant across the line in Bartow County. That’s going to continue to drive business along the 411 corridor.”
Enterprise Corner, which is the former Braden farm property, is owned by the Rome-Floyd County Development Authority.
