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Published Tuesday, February 09, 2010 in Local

Court date changed for Coweta/Griffin water hearing

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

There has been yet another change in the court hearings on the Coweta and Griffin water contract dispute.

Court hearings were set for Feb. 22 and 23.

Late last week, word was that the hearings would be held in Fayette County.

As of Monday, the case was back in Spalding County Superior Court in Griffin.

Both Griffin and Fayette counties are part of the Spalding County Judicial Circuit, and judges can practice circuit-wide.

The hearings were to be held in Fayetteville because that's where Judge Christopher Edwards was to have been on those days.

The hearings are on the city of Griffin's plan to issue some $11 million in bonds. The vast majority of those bonds will be used for pay for sewer system upgrades that will serve an industrial prospect. Approximately $500,000, though, is to be used to upgrade the water main that connects Griffin and Coweta County.

The main needs to be enlarged so that it can carry all the water that Coweta is supposed to be buying from Griffin in 2012. The 50-year water contract has Coweta committed to buying an ever-increasing amount of water through 2025, when the requirement peaks at 7.5 million gallons per day. The amount then begins to decrease until the contract ends in 2049.

Coweta County will also, eventually, need to upgrade its line that connects with Griffin.

Coweta County and the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority surprised Griffin representatives by contesting the bond validation on Dec. 29.

Griffin was presented a check for nearly $7 million, as a "tender offer" from Coweta for the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority to become a one-seventh equity partner in the water system.

Coweta argued that becoming an equity partner would both relieve the Coweta authority of its obligations under the "take or pay" provisions of the contract, and allow Coweta to purchase water at a wholesale rate.

Griffin disagreed, saying that becoming an equity partner only means that Coweta can get a share of the water system profits.

During the December hearing, Dr. Brant Keller, Griffin's director of public works and utilities, testified that the commitment from Coweta allowed Griffin to build the large regional reservoir and water treatment plant.

Without that commitment, "we probably would have had to look at a smaller source," Keller told Judge Edwards.

Edwards ordered the parties to attend mediation. Two days of mediation last week didn't do much to change anyone's mind, so the bond validation hearing was continued.

The authority took out a four-year loan from BB&T for the tender offer, said Ellis Cadenhead, general manager of the water and sewerage authority. The loan is at 3.19 percent. If the offer is accepted the authority will likely issue bonds to pay off the loan.

The money was placed in an interest-bearing account while the issue is being worked out.

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