The Fannin County Water Authority, during a meeting Wednesday, September 18, voted to allow their customers to only pay 10 percent of their $1,650 tap fee up front, with the remaining fee to be paid off in payments.
“On our tap fee, the $1,650 can be kind of stiff for some people and something I wanted to propose, and I make a motion, that we allow people to pay 10 percent down on the tap fee and they have 12 months to complete the payment of the tap fee,” authority member Larry Chapman said. “I want to make it easy on the people to sign on.”
Every member voted to implement the change, except for Mark Burger who asked, “So basically, we’re going into the finance business?”
Secretary Kay Kendall said, “No, we’re not going to charge them interest.” To which Burger replied, “Its still financing, it’s just free.”
General Manager Mike Searce asked the board to purchase a 2019 4x4 Ford Ranger for $33,202 from North Georgia Ford. Board members had previously discussed using the money they received from selling their trackhoe, which sold for $31,003.
The purchase was approved unanimously.
At the authority’s August meeting, they heard from Paul Nero at Neptune regarding a new meter reader.
The authority voted to purchase a meter reader for $8,500, however before voting, authority member Angie Arp asked what the reasons to purchase the reader would be.
Searce explained that the current system was outdated, it made it easier to read meters and would prevent any of the issues that have he has faced when using the current reader.
“I think it’s something we need,” Chapman said.
The deadline to sign up to receive water on the Bluebird project will be at the end of this month.
According to Chairwoman Anita Weaver, the well will be cut off at that time.
After receiving permission from The City of Morganton, a contract will be extended to Robinson’s Stave that will be valid to sign for 45 days.
“If at that point they’ve not signed the contract, it will be withdrawn and when and if they are ready for water in the future they are more than welcome to come back to the authority and request the water,” Kendall said. “We’ll evaluate it at that time based on our financial ability and physical ability to provide them that water.”
Searce was asked to look into the possibility of having signs placed on all new projects that let people know the project is being brought to the area by the Fannin County Water Authority.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Weaver asked the board if they would be okay with having “executive committee meetings” prior to the start of each monthly meeting.
“Honestly folks, I think we have been rushing through some of our meetings,” Weaver said. “I think today was a great meeting. We’ve taken time, we’ve had our agenda on top and we’ve done a lot faster and better. … If it’s okay with the board, what we’ve thought about doing is just having an executive committee meeting maybe 30 minutes to an hour earlier to make sure we’ve got everything on our list, go over the agenda with Mike and then bring it to the board at that time.”
Burger said, “If that’s what happened today, I like this.”
The authority unanimously agreed to do so.