Thursday, February 1, 2024–12:57 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
A program that assists low-income residents with their water and sewer bills will not be available in Rome in 2024, much to the surprise of city officials.
The federal program is administered locally by the Tallatoona Community Action Partnership.
Rome Water and Sewer Director John Boyd told the city’s water and sewer committee on Thursday that he received no official notice and they found out when a customer called.
The City of Rome received just shy of $87,000 in grant LIHWAP grant funding in 2022 and just under $163,000.
“It was a great program,” Boyd said. “I think it helped a lot of people. I was not nearly as complex as it was portrayed to be for us to track and do what we needed for auditing purposes—but unfortunately, it’s gone.”
An email has been sent seeking more information, including if there are plans to start the program back up, but water and sewer staff have not heard back.
Rome Water and Sewer Customer Services Director added that 590 Rome residents were served by the program.
Committee hears pitch regarding sewer service for the bypass
Local businessman Jim Givens would like to see sewer service extended to a property he owns on the bypass at Old Calhoun Road.
He told members of the Rome Water and Sewer Committee that the 19 acres is in the county and is zoned community commercial.
“I have some more people coming to look at it next month, and they are talking about apartments,” he said.
Rome City Manager Sammy Rich told Givens that there has been interest in a couple of other projects on that side of town, so he has recently looked into the issue of sewer service.
“I’ve recently looked at this,” he said. We’ve got sewer on out on Wilshire Road, as I recall.”
Givens added there is also sewer located on Calhoun Road, about 3,000 feet from the bypass. Givens told the committee that he has no problem paying for sewer for his property, but he does not know a cost estimate.
Rich also warned that the city is not in the business of doing speculative sewer.
“We don’t want to put in a sewer main on the promise because we are going to get all these new customers, then the next thing we know, we have a new federal conservation easement and our investment goes right out the window,” he told Givens. “However, within a case like yours, where you have a project, that’s when we should be getting together to figure out how to get it done.”
Givens believes the reason there is not more development on the bypass is because there is no sewer.
