Lamar Callaway, manager of the Greensboro Water and Sewer system, Monday night assured members of the city council that the city has enough capacity and the ability to manage continued growth.
In recent months, prospective developers of housing and industrial development have been seeking annexation into the city, primarily for access to the city’s water and sewer services.
This is in addition to the already annexed 500-plus acres along Highway 44, south of the I-20 exit, which includes the partially completed Oconee Towne Center and surrounding land planned for housing. Greensboro and Union Point are the only large systems serving northern Greene County.
Callaway said the city has a permit to pull 3.3 million gallons of water per day from Lake Oconee. The city water treatment plant on Hwy 278 near Carey Station Road is currently licensed to process 1.66 million gallons per day. He indicated that, in the period from January to March of 2022 and 2023, an average of 590,000 gallons per day were being pumped into the city lines. In the first three months of 2024, the daily average has jumped to 655,000 gallons.
Callaway said that still leaves a potential of about a million gallons per day that the plant can produce for future use without further licensing.
Still, Greensboro’s water system is very old and for many years has been experiencing a sizable amount of what is called “unaccounted for water.”
“I would say now it is 20-30 percent,” Callaway told the Lake Oconee News following his presentation. “We want to get it narrowed down to 10-percent.”
Callaway suspects that a lot of the problems are old water meters, including those at industrial locations, which need to be replaced.
Vaping
The city council voted to put a 90-day moratorium on accepting applications to operate so-called vape shops in the city. The action came on recommendation from the city attorney who said the city has received inquiries about opening a shop in the downtown area, but no applications have been received. The moratorium will give the city time to create an ordinance relating to vape shops.
Vaping is a replacement for cigarettes and involves using a handheld electronic device to breathe an aerosol mist into the lungs.
Vape shops have opened in many cities large and small. They sell e-cigarettes, vape pens, or other electronic nicotine delivery systems as well as liquid nicotine, flavoring, propylene glycol, and other additives that are inhaled through a mouthpiece.
Vaping has become very popular among youth, but the medical community says it can cause breathing problems, organ damage, addiction, and other conditions.
Breweries and distilleries
Council members also approved an addition to the city zoning ordinance relating to Commercial Planned Unit Developments (CPUD) to include breweries and distilleries.
Up to now, those businesses have not been referenced in the city ordinances. This is despite the approval seven years ago by the then-city council for the Oconee Brewing Company, which has been brewing and selling beer at its facility on N. West Street since 2017.
The success of the brewery and an application from Infamous Whiskey to construct a distillery in downtown Greensboro caused the council to enshrine those businesses in the zoning laws.
The action at Monday’s meeting also allowed the council to give final approval to rezoning the property at 208 E. Broad St. for the Infamous Whiskey Distillery.
Also at Monday night’s city council meeting:
Mayor Corey Williams charged members of the Greensboro Youth Council with putting together a pop-up store that will promote products made by budding youth entrepreneurs in the city. The plan is for a one-day event in downtown Greensboro.
Council approved an amendment to its contract with Weyerhaeuser for the construction of a new water pump station along Meadow Crest Road.
The city previously planned to build the pump station at the site of the new Greene County Elementary School. Weyerhaeuser, which owns land near the school site, has agreed to pay the costs of moving the pump station further down the road, closer to a site where a planned housing development could be constructed.
Mayor Corey Williams says his search for a new city manager is continuing. He says there is one leading candidate who lives in the state but would reveal no other information. The city has been without a manager for three months since Jarvis Sims resigned under fire.
The mayor’s first nominee, former Georgia Revenue Commissioner David Curry, was turned down on a 2-3 vote in March when council members Chris Moore, Morris Miller, and Cynthia Rivers voted against Curry.
Council members David Neal and Jontavius Smith voted for Curry and appear ready to support Mayor Williams’s current favorite. But since the mayor only nominates a candidate, he needs the support of Moore, Miller, and/or Rivers as the third vote.
A clue to the frustration among council members came during Councilman Miller’s prayer closing Monday’s meeting.
“We need a little more unity around this table, God,” Miller said, “please intervene in our situation.”