News Nearby: Norcross to Sell its Water-Sewer System to County

In its third public meeting regarding the topic, the Norcross City Council voted 4-0 in favor of selling its water and wastewater system to Gwinnett County.

Only a few comments were made in the April meeting before the council cast their votes. Former Mayor Lillian Webb went before the council to address concern on the city's water employees who will be displaced.

Two employees are currently working the city water system, and while they won't be working for the city after the switch, they do have the option of applying for positions with the county, according to City Manager Rudolph Smith and Alisha Voutas, the customer service manager for Gwinnett's Department of Water Resources.

The county has agreed to purchase the system for $2 million, which Webb also commented on, saying it seems low considering how much the city put into improving and upgrading it.

"I think we all [the council] would like to see if we could possibly get more for the system than we had anticipated, but after the negotiations, this was the very best we could do after going back and forth with the county for several months," said Councilman Craig Newton.

There was some debate among the council that the funds should be set aside for a specific project type, such as infrastructure, instead of going straight to the city's general fund. The council decided Monday was not the time to make that decision, and it would be brought up at a later date.

Councilman David McLeroy was absent from the April city council meeting, thus he did not vote.

McLeroy and Councilman Charlie Riehm were part of the task force that considered the options for the city's water and sewer system five years ago, though. After six months of work, they decided selling was the best option since the city was not profiting or breaking even from it, so negotiations with the county started.

After Monday's vote was finished, Mayor Bucky Johnson applauded the team, city and county on its hard work over the years.

What the approval of the intergovernmental agreement means for Norcross residents is that the county will start billing citizens for water and sewer services.

The city will take its final reads at the end of April and bill in May, and the county will take over May 14. Norcross' meters will be read first by the county in mid to late June.