By Mark Millican

markmillican@daltoncitizen.com

An agreement between the Whitfield County Board of Education and Dalton Utilities is designed to help the school system recoup some $2 million of its projected costs of $3.2 million for sewer to the new high school near Varnell.

The board approved the agreement Tuesday at a work session. On Aug. 18, the Dalton Utilities board committed to provide sewer service to support opening of the high school in the fall of 2011.

The school board will pay the $3.2 million out of building contingency funds from the 2006 education Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (ESPLOST). The breakdown is $2 million toward construction of the sewage treatment facility at the site of the old Sims dairy farm and $1.2 million for the “lift station” at the high school and the lines to get the sewage to the facility (approximately one mile). The satellite sewage treatment facility is projected to cost $8 million at current construction costs.

Dalton Utilities CEO Don Cope said in mid-August the estimated value of all the incentives the school system will provide is $3.1 million, at today’s costs for materials. Asked how the cost jumped to $3.2 million, school system spokesman Eric Beavers said until Dalton Utilities starts laying the lines, “all the costs are estimates.”

Tap fees that will be charged to residential and commercial customers who sign on for sewage treatment will be used to reimburse the school system at a 50 percent rate, projected to be $2 million over 10 years.

Rick Ott, senior executive vice president of M.B. Kahn Construction, told board members “additional credits with more tap-ons” could mean the board’s total expenditure for the sewer project would be less than $1.2 million. He said the sewage arrangement with Dalton Utilities is similar to arrangements he’s seen in building other schools.

Ott presented two other options for sewage disposal to the board.

• A conventional septic system would require an additional 20 to 30 acres of property, Ott said, and cost a total of $3.53 million when land purchase, design costs, and maintenance and operations were factored in.

Ott said the site on Crow Road and Highway 2 is “not a watershed area,” and does not percolate for septic, much like other land in the county that has been labeled “impervious” for septic tank placement.

• Another option would be an on-site treatment plant, with a total expenditure of $3.8 million.

“It’s cutting edge technology but it’s not approved in Georgia,” said Ott of the on-site system, adding getting approval would likely be a “lengthy” process. He also said there was “a high element of the unknown” about the system.

“You must have a sewer worker on site, plus there’s the additional maintenance and depreciation costs,” he said, pointing out that neither depreciation nor additional design and permitting were included in the $3.8 million price tag.