Paulding’s commissioners approve RCR funding adjustment, adopt resolution of mission statement

Paulding’s Board of Commissioners wrapped up their January sessions last week, and approved several agenda items including two tied to the construction of the Richland Creek Reservoir project, which broke ground in September of last year.
Prior to the RCR business Paulding commissioners presented a reportedly forth draft of a resolution memorializing a ‘mission, vision and values’ statement.
Tabled from the first meeting of the year earlier in January the new version was said to be revised from its initial version after some public input was collected by the board. The resolution notes as primary goals ‘unity, progress achieved through teamwork, to embrace change, to build open and honest relationships and to do more with less and to strive to conserve taxpayer dollars.’
The BoC passed the resolution 5-0.
Brown and Caldwell’s’ Kelly Comstock, chief consultant for the Richland Creek Reservoir project, addressed Paulding commissioners during their morning session. Comstock gave a general update and also discussed two agenda items.
The first item was due to changes required for the water treatment plant, Etowah River pump station and reservoir pump station project in the amount of $1,606,701.41 and the second item was required for the removal of an additional 7,000 cubic yards of blast rock at the raw water pipeline in the amount of $550,000.
“These represent changes that do warrant additional funds,” Comstock told Paulding commissioners, who also met with members of the board prior to the meeting regarding the project changes, according to Commissioners Crow and Pownall and Chairman Carmichael. According to Comstock the Power Company has required additional variable speed pumps that the original plans had hoped to do without, and additionally, piling support is required for the relocation of the raw water pump station on the river bank, he said.
Regarding the other agenda item, removal of an additional 7,000 cubic yards of blast rock is needed at the raw water pipeline. Comstock explained that initially any geologic analysis was limited because the property was not owned by the county. Contingency funding in the amount of $550,000 over the original estimate is needed to complete the work, Comstock said. “The Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) was originally established based on the assumption that the access road would run along the pipeline easement but instead is changed to run along the property line. The property owner indicated that they use this area for cattle grazing and original pipeline plans would interfere with that,” Comstock said.
Planners will move the access road’s location per the property owner’s stipulation that the road run along the property line rather than through the property, he said. Program contingencies are available within the $215 million overall budget and have been set aside Comstock said, and added that it’s not uncommon for these types of issues to come up during construction. “The CMAR contractor, Brown and Caldwell, and the lead design engineer Arcadis have worked over the past several months really negotiating these numbers making sure that the county is getting the absolute lowest cost possible...,” Comstock said.
The BoC voted to approve both items 5-0.
The RCR is located on approximately 700-acres of county-owned land in northern Paulding County. The RCR will be on Richland Creek, but will be filled with water from the Etowah River.
Funding is coming from a mixture of county-issued bonds, loans from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, and state grants. According to Comstock, the only other major component, which is the finished Water Pipeline and Booster Pump Station, is due to complete the design phase and be out for bid by first quarter of 2017. Construction of that phase is expected to complete by March of 2019.