Published Monday, December 21, 2009

Thomas Crossroads sewer in the works

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

The long-awaited sewering of Thomas Crossroads has begun.

Crews began the work in early November. Progress has been hampered by the rains, but hopes are still to complete the project by April -- assuming there are some dry spells when work can be done.

The sewer main will run from the Thomas Grace Annex, at the corner of Andrew Bailey Road and Highway 34 East, to the White Oak Professional Center, where it will tie in to existing sewer lines. Those lines run to the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority's Shenandoah Wastewater Treatment Facility.

The recently-upgraded plant now has a capacity to treat some two million gallons per day. It's currently treating only about 750,000 GPD.

The project includes two pump stations, and feeder lines, which link the main line, on the south side of Highway 34, to businesses on the north side of the highway.

So far, the two "wet wells" for the pump stations have been set, and 60 percent of the road bores have been done, said Rusty Russell, authority assistant to the general manager.

And it's not costing authority customers, or taxpayers, a dime.

The project is being entirely paid for by PEG GPD LLC.

PEG is a real-estate partnership, said Greg Lorenzetti of PEG.

The project got its start when Lorenzetti and his two partners "were looking to purchase the empty retail center at Thomas Grace Annex," he said.

The Thomas Grace Annex has several different buildings in it; some occupied, and some vacant.

The development is served by a private septic system "that doesn't have any more capacity to serve the empty retail," Lorenzetti said.

Lorenzetti and his partners met with several people involved, and were told that, for the retail center to be of any use at all, the septic system would need to be expanded.

"We were told the existing septic system would cost about $750,000 to expand to meet the needs of all the empty parcels," Lorenzetti said. "It doesn't make any sense for us to expand it just to meet our needs. There's all these other empty parcels, plus the existing facility needed upgrading," he said.

One of Lorenzetti's partners decided to approach the water and sewerage authority and ask if there were any way to get public sewer service for the building.

"The authority said 'well, actually, we have capacity,'" Lorenzetti said. "If you guys can get the line out there, we'll give you sewer," he said. "I think it was that easy.

"So we went to our partners and our bank and said 'can we make this work?'"

The only way for the project to make financial sense was for PEG to be reimbursed by the other customers who would tie onto the line.

Working with the authority, they came up with the plan. If PEG would fund all of the work to hook onto the sewer system, the authority would allocate them 250,000 gallons of daily capacity.

Allocated capacity has to be paid for. Under the agreement, PEG will pay the authority $6 per gallon. The group will then charge any other customers $11 per gallon, to recoup the cost of running the line.

"If we sold all of the capacity at $11, it would cover all of the costs," Lorenzetti said. PEG has five years to sell the capacity, or it will lose any remaining allocation.

"If this goes out five years and we sign the last customer up on the fifth year, we would probably have a deficit... because the interest is pretty high on that loan," Lorenzetti said.

Still, it makes great financial sense. Not only will PEG not have to spend any money upgrading the septic system, but "public sewer is much better than an on-site septic system. You don't have the long-term maintenance cost, the worries about who is going to keep it up, and what if the system fails," Lorenzetti said.

Plus, septic systems, especially in soils that aren't ideal, take up a lot of land.

"It was a win-win to put the sewer in," Lorenzetti said.

He's been out talking to businesses all along the stretch of highway.

For existing businesses, the initial response is disbelief.

"The first reaction I get is 'we have been told that for the last 10 years,'" Lorenzetti said. "A lot of people were skeptical, to say the least."

But now that they can see the work actually taking place "they are pretty excited. This has been a long time coming, as I understand," he said. "Now that they see a lot more activity, I'm getting a lot more phone calls and talking to a lot more people."

For any new business that locates along Hwy. 34, tying onto the sewer system will be a no-brainer.

Lorenzetti said he was talking to a dentist who wanted to relocate to the Hwy. 34 area. The dentist discovered that, to accommodate a septic tank, he would need between one and one-and-a-half acres of land.

"Now that he can hook on to the sewer, he's looking at really just a quarter-acre, a third-acre," Lorenzetti said. "He doesn't need a very big parcel of land anymore because he doesn't have to worry about the septic system.

As for existing businesses, the decision will be a bit more complicated.

"The real issue comes down to... what does it cost them to hook on today and how much money can they save over a three to five-year period ? They don't have any more maintenance, and they can now use that land that was dedicated to a septic field."

If a septic system is failing or needs expansion, "these business owners will have to make a decision: do I put the money into this septic system or do I just go ahead and hook up the public system, and I don't have any more worries? I pay my monthly fee to the authority and they take care of all of my other issues," Lorenzetti said. "If I upgrade my facility, I still have that ongoing maintenance and capital reserves I have to keep for the next upgrade.

"I think, ultimately, it is going to be a benefit to most of the businesses to hook on."

Of course, PEG is still taking a pretty big risk. "The risk is that we don't get paid as much as we thought and, therefore, we have to absorb that somehow," Lorenzetti said.

Still, "we had enough faith" that the plan would be successful. "When I looked at the five-year-period and looked at the development that is going to happen on Hwy. 34, I felt comfortable that we could substantially reduce a lot of that risk," Lorenzetti said. "I think Hwy. 34 is going to be a phenomenal growth corridor, with sewer being available."

The PEG project has also enabled two additional projects -- one to provide sewer to the proposed Fischer Crossings development, and one for future development at Arbor Springs and along Ga. Hwy. 154. Sewer service is only for commercial and industrial users -- residential service is strictly forbidden by Coweta County.

The Fischer Crossings project is currently in the easement acquisition phase. The agreement with those developers is a little bit different, said Ellis Cadenhead, general manager of the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority.

The development has been allocated 100,000 gallons per day in capacity, which must be paid for quarterly once the line is complete. The developers of Fischer Crossings and Sam's Club put up money up front for the construction of the line, Cadenhead said. While the PEG line includes two pump stations, the line from Fischer Crossings to PEG will be all gravity flow.

There is no action currently taking place on the Arbor Springs project. Under that agreement, there is no allocation of capacity, but the property owners, known as Landward III, will pay the entire costs of running the line to tie into the Thomas Crossroads line.