At present the council has three choices, and done correctly, any could work. Conversely, if any option is done incorrectly it will only add to the lengthy list of problems this vital city service has had in recent history.
The three options include contracting with a private company to run the department; issuing $7.5 million in bonds and using the proceeds to upgrade the department, or borrowing money from a state revolving loan fund along with state and federal grants and use that to upgrade the department.
Not an easy choice.
The private management option has many employees of the Water and Sewer Department upset and worried about their jobs. That’s understandable. There are differing opinions on whether privatization would result in lost jobs. ESG, a company that currently manages the water and sewer service in Opelika, is the private company under consideration. Depending on which opinion you believe, they have either run people off, or not.
And, depending on whose opinion you believe, they have either done a good job or a terrible job.
Another option is to issue $7.5 million in bonds, invest it in upgrading an aging infrastructure, and getting the Water and Sewer Department improved physically while improving the management of the department. A similar move would be to borrow money from a state fund, seek state and federal grants and do that same thing with the money.
Councilman Donnie Miller has a valid concern when he questions whether the $7.5 million is enough to do the job. In his view, that will not cover engineering and administration and other items just as necessary to run a water and sewer department as pipes and pumps. Borrowing money is always risky, but not borrowing enough to do the job properly is foolhardy.
Council President Horace Patterson asked employees to list the many improvements made recently, and that too is a valid point, one that enforces the idea that current employees are capable of doing the job needed. Those improvements are many and all were needed.
We do not envy the council this decision. Whichever way it goes, someone will be mad and angry and the name calling and spurious accusations so long a part of Talladega politics will begin.
But Mayor Brian York best laid the foundation for the decision making process.
“Ultimately we have to be responsible not only to the employees, but to the 15,000 to 17,000 people who elected us.”
Those people are the citizens of Talladega. Through their water bills and their taxes, they support the Water and Sewer Department and the city of Talladega. It is their interests that should come first.
If the public’s interest coincides with that of the employees and the council, so much the better. But in the end, it should be the public’s interests that decide the matter.
The Cheaha Trail Riders are planning on draining a wetland that filters water before it enters our drinking water here in Talladega. And yes this is a Federal wetland on federal property. As someone that pays 25% more than city residences for water since the county commission condemded a weels on the jacksontrace road i think if you vote for anyOne in office you add to the problem of getting Talladega on the RIGHT track.
How can the citizens trust that any money borrowed will indeed go to the rehabilatation of a failed water and sewer system? The health, safety, and welfare of everyone here depends on a dependable, reliable and fully functioning water and sewer dept.
The decisions will indeed be difficult .