MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — It's been six years since a water main break shut down Milledgeville businesses and Georgia College for several days.
It's also been five years since a study recommended closing the city's two old treatment plants that are more than 70-years-old.
How are businesses doing now, and what are the city's plans to address the problem going forward?
General manager and head roaster at Blackbird Coffee, Bailey Rowland, remembers the water main break six years ago.
"We technically could not serve anything we handled. There wasn't a way for us to properly sanitize. Hand-washing is very important in this business. We also were unable to brew coffee because without water, we can't have coffee. So, that was a little insane, but we did the best that we could," Rowland said.
Blackbird hasn't had any water troubles since then, but Rowland thinks there's a silver lining out of what happened.
“We now have a policy in place for how to handle any sort of water shortage or cut off that can happen with the city. Many of the businesses were able to come together to make a pact in case something like that were ever to happen again,” she said.
The businesses on main street have a plan, but what is the city's?
Milledgeville's City Manager Hank Griffeth says this is step one.
"Before you know what your replacement process is, you have to do some analysis to see where the issues are,” he said.
Griffeth explains that those problems are with the pipes, the water treatment facilities, and the money. The city has been working with engineers to see where the pipes are breaking, but haven't nailed down where the issues are just yet.
They don't even know how much it would cost to replace their aging water pipes. As for the water treatment plants, he says they're no longer building a new one.
"If we had built a new water treatment plant, none of that money would've been used for any improvements on the wastewater treatment plan,” he said. “So, I felt like we needed to see if we could possibly get the most bang for the buck by spending that same amount of money, we could use to upgrade the two plants that we have."
Meanwhile, the city fixes problems as they come up.
"The utility maintenance folks are down in that hole with water shooting around them making the repair. That's what they do to keep from inconveniencing the customers,” Griffeth said.
Griffeth says council and the mayor may meet in July at the start of the city's new budget year to try to find money for the projects, but that's not a firm timetable.
13WMAZ also reached out to Milledgeville’s mayor multiple times, but she wasn’t able to comment.
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