The Macon Water Authority is a step closer to resolving a decades-long battle with flooding in south Bibb County, but the solution is a problem for some property owners in the old Rutland community.
Thursday, MWA’s board voted unanimously to condemn a combined 20 acres of land belonging to the Lipford and Bowman families at 3222 and 3112 Avant Place. Because they refused to sell, the authority seized the equivalent of 15 football fields to build a detention pond to slow the flow of stormwater that floods nearby homes.
About a dozen family members and friends pleaded with the Authority to find another remedy and let them keep old farmland that was first settled by their ancestors in 1851.
“We understand and empathize with the people behind us,” Delores Lipford said. “But we don’t feel like so much of our land should be taken.”
The Lipfords will lose 14.39 acres of their 47.22 acres, according to MWA survey maps obtained by The Macon Newsroom.
Family friend and farmer David Green said he’s really emotional about people losing farmland.
“Don’t take it from somebody who doesn’t want to sell,” Green said. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to.”
Brad Lipford, one of the heirs of the property, asked the board to reconsider.
“The area being taken is all wooded property and you’re taking part of the aesthetic value of this property away, leaving only pasture land, so I would just request that there be more consideration into other methods,” Lipford said.
While searching for a solution, the civil engineering and environmental engineering firm HHNT studied the topography around Nowell Estates which acts like a bathtub collecting all the rainwater but with too small of a pipe to drain it efficiently. They determined the detention pond and a better drainage system would be the best fix to curtail the nearby residential flooding.
For the last few years, HHNT worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the redesign while the Authority’s legal arm tried to get property owners to agree to sell a portion of their land for the fair market value.
Because they refused, the Authority is exercising eminent domain to take the land in exchange for a fair price, which a judge will have to approve.
The MWA is condemning 5.64 acres of the Bowmans’ 13.72 acres, according to the maps provided. The owners can protest the price in a legal process that could take months.
In the meantime, flood-weary homeowners Jim and Mary Ann Chevalley are hoping the next big rain won’t flood them again. Their property on Francis Drive adjoins the Lipford estate.
“This thing needs to be looked at as a crisis that needs to be fixed,” Jim Chevalley said.
“I’m not unsympathetic to your plight about your land,” Mary Ann Chevalley told the adjacent property owners. “Sorry it impacts you so badly, but something has to be done.”
MWA dug out ditches that filled with sediment over the years, but believe the detention pond is critical to resolve the drainage issues.
After about an hour in executive session, the board approved the condemnation, but work on the project is still months away as the legal proceedings play out.
Money concerns, Lake Wildwood woes
During this month’s meeting, MWA also approved $9.2 million for engineering and design work to expand the Rocky Creek Water Reclamation Facility that has a current capacity to process 28 million gallons a day.
The initial money for the $54 million project comes from MWA’s $113 million bond deal approved last fall for eight major projects.
The Authority also is proceeding with plans to upgrade commercial water meters with new AMI technology. With about $4.7 million from the bonds, a purchase order has gone out for 2,000 meters and the necessary equipment that will allow MWA to track water flow without meter readers going to the sites, said Michel Wanna, MWA’s assistant executive director.
In recent years, MWA replaced the residential meters with older AMR technology that allows meter readers to drive by instead of getting out and physically inspecting the meter to record water usage. The old meters no longer accurately tracked the water flowing into homes, so many customers saw an increase with the new equipment.
In hindsight, MWA’s current administration regrets prior leadership did not start with the commercial accounts and opt for the newer technology, which current executive director Ron Shipman said was available when he was still working for Georgia Power.
The board’s newest member, Elaine Lucas, shared that her water bill doubled when she got a new meter.
“I agree with you that I wish that we had started with a different technology and with some of the businesses because the residential folks are getting hit with the increases,” Lucas said.
During the evening’s public comments, retiree Connie Adkins said she was really disappointed the Authority started the meter upgrades with residential customers, and urged the board to hold the line on future rate increases.
“I am pleading with you to please make sure that you investigate any additional increases and that they are absolutely necessary for your homeowners,” Adkins said.
Former mayoral candidate Shekita Maxwell also decried rate increases during the board meeting. During committee meetings, a sheriff’s deputy escorted her out of the room after multiple vocal outbursts during the proceedings.
MWA is undergoing a financial analysis to help them plan for the future, including likely additional rate increases.
When Shipman came on board, he asked for a list of pending projects that totaled about $400 million, not including stormwater needs.
“We’re trying to prioritize these,” said Shipman, who also noted the rising costs of doing business.
For the third time in recent months, Lake Wildwood residents took to the podium to ask for help with the stormwater drainage that has dumped tons of silt into their lake. Homeowners are seeing major flooding problems due to the shallower lake not being able to hold as much runoff.
MWA Chairman Gary Bechtel pointed out there’s not much the Authority can do since the gated community is private property, but agreed to meet with residents to help them explore options.
Protesting policy and procedures
Over the four hours of open session, board members sparred over procedural issues and whether board members who are not on a committee have a right to sit on the dais and ask questions.
During the Pension Committee, Chair Dwight Jones tried to get Vice Chair Lucas to wait until after a presentation to ask questions, but she defied him and proceeded anyway.
District 2’s Desmond Brown later protested that he was not allowed to sit in his seat on the dais during meetings of committees he is not on.
“My people put me here,” Brown said. “This is an earned elected chair that ratepayers put me in.”
He called the new policy to only allow committee members to sit on the dais during those meetings “asinine” and Lucas agreed.
At the beginning of the Finance Committee, Chair Jones took a point of privilege which Brown also objected to, but Jones continued.
Jones explained he was no longer going to allow non-committee members to speak unless there was time at the conclusion of that committee’s agenda.
Jones said he wanted to keep committee agendas moving to ensure the board meeting could regularly begin at 4 p.m.
Last month, local NAACP President Gwen Westbrooks complained that the public needed an exact meeting time, and preferably outside of business hours when more working people could attend.
A couple of years ago, MWA consolidated all of its meetings on the first Thursday of the month with the board meeting beginning at the conclusion of that month’s committees.
After researching the by-laws and proper parliamentary procedures, attorney Jay Strickland agreed with Jones that it’s up to a committee chair to conduct the meeting and determine who will be recognized to speak.
Despite Strickland’s legal opinion, Lucas threatened to override Jones’ wishes.
“You’re not going to stop me from speaking, so I suggest you recognize me,” she told him at the conclusion of the open session.
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities and can be reached at fabian_lj@mercer.edu or 478-301-2976.
