Monroe County Commissioners held a brief ceremony on Lee King Road on Tuesday afternoon to commemorate county water being turned on for the first time as part of the ongoing Juliette/Rum Creek water project.
Monroe County Commissioners Greg Tapley (Chairman), John Ambrose, Lamarcus Davis and Eddie Rowland were in attendance on Tuesday at the ceremony held at 768 Lee King Road, the home of Charles Grizzard. Representatives from Fairburn-based United Grading & Excavating, including Municipal Utility Manager Matt Stonica, were also present at Tuesday’s event. United Grading & Excavating is the contractor on Phase 1, Contracts 2 and 3.
Tapley thanked contractors United Grading & Excavating and Macon-based John R. Walker, Inc. for their quality, timely work as well as Grizzard for allowing the county to use his home to debut its new water system. He also thanked his fellow commissioners for voting to move ahead with the project and the county’s citizens for funding the effort.
Ambrose, who represents District 3 where most of the water line expansion project is taking place, said he’d always wanted county water available in the Juliette/Rum Creek area but hated that it happened because of reported contamination in nearby private wells. Ambrose then thanked Monroe County Manager Jim Hedges, who was also in attendance, and the county’s finance department for determining the resources needed to turn what is normally a five-year-long project into one that will hopefully be completed in less than two years.
After the short speeches by Tapley and Ambrose, John Smith of the Monroe County Water Department did the honors, using a wrench to turn on a water meter valve in Grizzard’s front yard for the first time.
Tuesday’s initial water system connection marked the final major step of the first and second contracts of Phase 1 of the water project, which began in July 2020. The first and second contracts of Phase 1 are now finished with all water mains installed and all water service installations complete. All 250+ homes serviced as part of the first two contracts of Phase 1 will have water available at their homes within the next several weeks.
In fact, the only thing left to finish on Phase 1, Contract 1, which was contracted out to John R. Walker, Inc., is the installation of a water main and fire hydrant at the Dames Ferry Fire Station, which will require additional jacking and boring. Meanwhile, Phase 1, Contract 3 is about 77% complete, and its estimated completion date is March 3.
Once the third contract of Phase 1 is wrapped up next month, Commissioners will have serviced 374 (44%) of the 852 total homes receiving county water as part of the total $16.3 million project.
