For the second time in three months, the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority voted to table further action toward the construction of a new county reservoir.
The most recent action came last Thursday night after Prime Engineering’s Rob MacPherson went over the final report on the site selection process. The previous action came after MacPherson presented the draft version of the report in November.
The two versions were essentially identical. In tabling both, the authority basically rejected MacPherson’s recommendation that Prime be commissioned to study the costs and benefits of increasing the size of the least expensive — $127 million — of the three reservoir sites, that it evaluate the yield and cost of building the two smallest reservoirs “in a phased approach,” and that it prepare the conceptual designs on those two concepts.
The study considered three potential sites for pump storage reservoirs, all of which would get water from the North Oconee River. The largest, 730 acres, would be located on Curry Creek and would cost an estimated $365 million. The other two would be located east and north of Nicholson, range in size from 154 to 220 acres, and cost from $127 million to $187 million.
Isn't that the one that had the size reduced so that the residents around it would remove their opposition?
And now that they have quieted down the outraged voices, they are looking to sneak in an increase in the size?
If this is true, then I have to say I'm not at all surprised, I actually expected something like this to happen. What an underhanded, sneaky, back-door thing to do. Just one more reason to distrust our elected officials.
What is underhanded and sneaky is your quote of only part of a sentence so as to convey the impression that the costs and benefits study will take place when exactly the opposite is true. The full sentence reads: "In tabling both, the authority basically rejected MacPherson’s recommendation that Prime be commissioned to study the costs and benefits of increasing the size of the least expensive — $127 million — of the three reservoir sites."
By the way, the members of the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority are NOT elected officials. They are appointed.