Even though no compelling reason for Peachtree City spending up to $1.3 million to dredge large portions of what was Lake Peachtree has been offered to the public, the City Council will decide this week whether to green-light the digging — and the expenditure.
The $1.3 million is equivalent to three-quarters of a mill in the city property tax rate, and it’s not included in the recently adopted city budget. One mill in the Peachtree City property tax rate produces $1.725 million in revenue.
A decision on the dredging of additional areas of Lake Peachtree and having those costs folded into the bid by Fayette County for its portion of the work will be considered Nov. 20 by the council.
So why the idea of looking at dredging the areas of the lake that are the responsibility of the city, and why now?
City Manager James Pennington on Tuesday said the conversation about the potential need for dredging has been around for the four years he has been with the city. And it was earlier this summer that the council agreed to have the study conducted.
“So the idea was to find out how much it would cost. (The study) came about (at the time) when the county is going to dredge,” Pennington said.
As for any pressing public issue that exists which requires the city to dredge its portion of the lake, Pennington said, “That’s up to the council to make the decision.”
As a cost-saving measure, city staff is recommending that the council authorize staff to include potential areas for dredging in the county’s current bid.
The recommendation follows recent comments from Pennington on the possibility of the city appending itself to the county’s contract and dredging other areas of the lake which have experienced silting and a reduction of depth.
County Water Services Director Lee Pope at the Nov. 6 council meeting suggested that the cost of additional dredging could be reduced if the city were to piggy-back on the county’s dredging proposal.
Areas identified in a study by Integrated Science and Engineering (ISE) include sections on the east and west sides of the lake and the area immediately south of the large section to be dredged by the county.
The additional areas identified for possible dredging which lie outside the area to be dredged by the county carry an estimated cost of $400,000 to $1.35 million based on a price of $30-50 per cubic yard, the depth at which the dredging occurs and the extent of dredging along the shoreline.
Staff noted that there would be no cost to the city for the county to put the potential additions into the current county dredging contract.
County Administrator Steve Rapson in an Oct. 24 letter said the county’s dredging project remains on schedule, with the letting of the actual dredging bid scheduled near the end of December and with the first dirt to be removed in January. The county-funded dredging includes a large area immediately south of Ga. Highway 54 and several smaller areas primarily on the west side of the lake.
ISE representative Dan Davis at a previous meeting cautioned the council that, beyond estimated expenses noted in the study, actual costs could vary significantly and would have to take into account issues such as haul routes, damage to city infrastructure from truck loads, disposal sites and environmental permitting.
Several residents at the Nov. 6 meeting called for the the city’s dredging project to be put into action while others suggested a different approach which could include leaving things as they are now since the vegetation will die off during the winter and will be covered by the water when the lake level is restored.
