“It’s hard to run a business on the unknown and right now our water supply — which is a huge resource that we need — is unknown,” Huffstetler says. “That’s not fair to us as business owners or as citizens.” Huffstetler says when the taps are off, it ends up costing money and time. He also says the city should make fixing the water problems a priority.
City Council Member Walter Reynolds says the city of Milledgeville is trying to help.
“We’ve been working to try to address some of the immediate areas — some of the more frequent problem areas — by making planned repairs,” Reynolds says.
Some of these planned repairs are updating computer systems at the water treatment plant, he says. He also says two weeks ago they fixed a pipe at North Wayne Street and Hancock Street. But it’s taking longer than expected, Reynolds says. “My hope is that ultimately we will be able to provide the quality of water that we have with much greater consistency. We know there are issues with the distribution structure and that is what we hope to address,” he says.
These upgrades are not going to be cheap they are going to cost $70 million to $80 million, Reynolds says. With it, water rates will likely increase over the next three years, starting in January.