TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — The City of Tallahassee is looking to start the planning phase of expanding water and sewage utility services to areas in the Southside.
"If your drain field goes bad that's very expensive to fix. If you got to pump the septic tanks out, uh so having sewer is nice," said Lisa Palmer.
She is the owner of Tallahassee Discount Furniture and has been in the area for 10 years. She is excited that the City of Tallahassee could expand water and sewage utility services to this part of the Southside.
"It would help our business a lot and just having access to stuff so people in this community don't have to go as far to find what they need," said Palmer.
The Board is looking to start the planning phase to help approximately 203 properties in the area of Woodville Highway, Crawfordville Highway and Capital Circle Southeast to switch from septic tanks to sewage
That planning phase includes the installation of 19,000 feet of sewer pipes, 16,000 feet of water main construction and 30 fire hydrants to improve fire protection in the area.
The City Commission believes planning would cost $2 million. The entire project is estimated to cost approximately 20 million dollars and take 3 years to complete.
Commissioner Curtis Richardson said in addition to getting rid of septic tanks, it would also protect water quality and help sustain growth in the Southside. Without an exact date, Richardson is hoping to get the project started in the near future. "Begin planning for and looking for the funding so that we can go ahead as quickly as possible get this completed."
Commissioner Jack Porter on the other hand, disagrees. "I think we're rushing this and moving way too quickly. We're talking about a project that will cost upwards of $22 million and making changes to the budget that we just passed a few weeks ago."
She wants to make sure the board has more community input before moving forward. "I don't want us to slow things down to prolong the process or progress and improvements we need to make; I just want to make sure that because it's so important we do it the right way."
However, the Board has approved to start the planning phase of this project. They have not come up with a funding strategy yet.
