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Mayor & Commission
Briefed on Bike
Trails, Water Rates
Could an "under-utilized" eastside park
become a destination for local mountain bik
ers? That's the plan, driven by the persistence
of John Wares of the Southern Off-Road
Bicycle Association (SORBA), ACC Leisure
Services Director Pam Reidy told county com
missioners at a work session last week. Local
SORBA members are willing to build three-
and-a-half miles of trails in East Athens Park
(located just off Loop 10 at Peter Street), so
the bike trails will cost taxpayers very little,
Reidy said. The 113-acre park has several
ballfields but is mostly undeveloped. Some
areas are hilly enough to provide beginner-
to-intermediate-level bike trails through the
woods; the trails will also be open to hikers
and joggers, she said.
There are more mountain bikers in the
United States than golfers, but—except for
UGA's mile-long trail at Lake Herrick—there
are no public trails in ACC, Reidy said. Local
bikers must presently drive to Oconee County's
Heritage Park (where SORBA also built the
trails) or to Ft. Yargo State Park in Winder
(which has 18 miles of trails and has become
a regional destination for mountain bikers).
"We want Athens people to be able to stay
right here and mountain bike," she said. "It
has become a very family-oriented sport. A
lot of kids are getting into it." East Athens
Community Park is "very underutilized," Reidy
said; long-iange plans for the park include
tennis and basketball courts, a nature build
ing, and a multi-use trail that will connect the
park to the Oconee River Greenway.
If commissioners approve the trails plan
next month, they could be ridable by late fall.
SORBA would also host bicycling workshops
for beginners of all ages.
At the same work session, commissioners
heard an upbeat evaluation of the county's
"tiered" water rates, in place since 2008 to
encourage conservation. The rates are a bit
complex—basically charging people extra if
they use much more water in summer than
winter (typically for lawn-watering)—but
customers seem to understand them now,
consultant Bill Zieburtz said. As intended, citi
zens are making "wise and efficient decisions"
about water use, and that's reflected in lower
peaks of water demand. The rates were care
fully designed to discourage peak-level water
use: those times when customers are demand
ing the most water from the system. Peak use
is rare, but the entire system must be built to
meet it, and that's very expensive, Zieburtz
pointed out.
Commercial users (UGA and the two chicken
processing plants are the biggest) are using
less water, too, and "that's pretty encourag
ing," Zieburtz said. Because of the threat of
water restrictions during the recent drought,
commercial users started "managing" their
demand even before the rates changed. (There
are tiered rates for businesses, too, but they
use water more consistently than residences.)
"The drought helped to highlight the
urgency of reduced water consumption,"
Zieburtz said, but ACCs tiered water rates
were not an emergency measure or a response
to the drought. Water supply is a long-term
concern, and such rates were being discussed
even before the drought. And the public's
reduced water use will enable ACC to accom
modate 20 percent more growth without
expanding the system, Zieburtz said: "All of
this has gained us a lot of capacity."
In her years on the ACC Commission, com
mented Alice Kinman, "I don't think I've ever
seen a better success story" than the success
of conservation water rates. In her own case,
she said, leaking faucets "doubled my bill, and
that got my attention."
Ben Emanuel of Altamaha Riverkeeper
agrees that, despite being unusually hard-
hit by the drought, ACC dealt with it better
than most communities. "I suspect we've
mostly addressed a lot of low-hanging fruit"
in conserving water, he told Flagpole. But
he warned against too much "backslapping"
complacency.
Emanuel said he'd like to see ACC expand
its pilot program of supplying newer, more-
efficient toilets to residents. Newer toilets cut
water use dramatically from several gallons
per flush to just over one (placing a closed
half-gallon jug of water in the tank is one way
to reduce the water use of an older toilet, he
says). Restaurants can be big water users, and
a Riverkeeper volunteer has been installing
faucet aerators free of charge for local restau
rants, Emanuel added. Free kits with sink aera
tors and low-flow shower heads are available
from ACC's utilities department.
County utilities director Gary Duck told
Flagpole he, too, would like to expand ACCs
water-conservation efforts, but right now
the county can't afford to sell any less water.
ACC is now paying to replace three treatment
plants, and water conservation translates into
lower revenues, he said: "It's going to take a
while to get our revenue stream back to where
we'd like to see it" as the county grows.
Even in hot weather, established lawns
don't need watering more than once a week,
landscaping professionals say, and bermuda
grass is very drought-tolerant. (Watering in
the evening reduces evaporation.) ACCs water
rates are explained on its public utilities
webpages; heavy water users pay more than
double the base rate for the extra water. And
because of the way rates are figured, house
holds with more than two people may want to
apply for an adjustment if their normal water
use kicks them into the higher rates.
John Huie
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