Leaders hope to answer more questions on county stormwater fee

News 12 NBC 26 @ 11 o'clock / Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) -- From the beginning, Richmond County's stormwater Fee has raised a lot of questions. For some they're still unanswered. Leaders held a public forum on Tuesday to try and wash away some of those concerns.

It's been in place for eight months, but some property owners like Joseph E. Smith, still have questions about Richmond County's stormwater fee.

"The point I'm trying to make is, where is our money?" Smith said.

Smith raised questions over how the money is spent and how property owners are billed.

Augusta Engineering Director Abie Ladson said the money from the fee will help with maintenance on stormwater projects. SPLOST money has to go towards tangible projects, like building retention ponds. The stormwater fee maintains that work.

"There were no specific funds for maintenance and this is what the stormwater is doing," Ladson said.

City Janice Allen Jackson explained at the forum that the annual total for SPLOST and the stormwater fee combined is about 19 million dollars.

The money collected from the stormwater fee on the water bill goes into an enterprise . That means that it can only be spent on stormwater projects for the county.

"We want to remind folks that number one this program is valuable for the city. It's an enterprise fund, so we're not slinging money all across. All of the money collected is dedicated to the stormwater program," District Four Commissioner Sammie Sias said.

Commissioner Sias lead the meeting. Another major point he wanted to make, the program is not just a fee. It's a program that is supposed to help improve the entire county, even for folks who might not think they have any problems.

It's a county wide problem. Ladson explained in the rural areas there are problems with corrugated metal pipes that need to be replaced. In urban areas there are issues with the pipes being undersized. There are also issues county wide with retention ponds and ditches that need to be cleared and cleaned out as well as problems with crumbling roads and bridges, like Patterson Bridge Road.

"It's all over the county, there's not one certain area that needs it more than another," Ladson said.

There are about 2,200 projects listed right now that need to be addressed.

"You take care of it, it may stay steady. It may go up because something else is going to fail," Ladson explained.

Bigger problems like flooded out roads and bridges are at the top of the list for repairs. But the cost of each project is different, which makes it challenging for leaders to estimate how far that 19 million dollars will go.

Right now work is being done above and below ground. In the next two weeks to a month on-call contractors the county hired will get to work on thirty projects around the county.

Other complaints raised today got into the particulars of how the government will handle bills to property owners if they have tenants who have not paid the fee. That's one issue the City says will be added to the website.

At the forum, there was also a detailed explanation about credits, and how non-residential property owners can get their stormwater fee discounted up to 65%. Those credits come from building other options to help deal with the stormwater issue like building a retention pond or a rain garden on the property. Other areas people can get a credit are from different education options. Those options are all listed on the breakdown of the stormwater fee by the city.

The city will also be offering some of the education credits for free. The classes are eight hours total and are offered in two parts. The first class will be offered on September 17th and the 24th. The second part will be on October 22nd and November 5th. It will be at the library from nine in the morning until one o'clock in the afternoon. There is room right now for about one hundred people to attend.

At the end of the meeting, some like Smith still had their questions and concerns.

"'Are you taking care of my city, the city I was born and raised in? Are you taking care of this city?'" he said.

Leaders hope this fee will make the answer to that question is yes.