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City reviews aquatic center plans
Work could begin soon
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Forsyth County News
Other action

Also at Tuesday night’s meeting, Cumming City Council:

• Agreed to accept bids for the widening of Buford Dam Road to three lanes with sidewalks from Hwy. 9 to Sanders Road. The project will also improve the intersection with Hwy. 9.

• Issued a 40-day moratorium on car booting and impoundment businesses, a move that will give the city time to craft an ordinance prohibiting them from operating in the city. The decision came after businesses expressed interest in providing the service, which Gravitt said is not needed. “We don’t want those kinds of businesses,” he said.

— Jennifer Sami
The city of Cumming is ready to move forward with construction of an aquatic center.

The mayor and city council voted Tuesday to award bids for work at the site off Pilgrim Mill Road.

“We’ve been waiting on this for a year or longer and we jumped a major hurdle,” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt said.

“This is a project that we [were] hoping to have it mostly completed by now, but ... thankfully we are at that point now.”

The delay arose as a result of complications from environmental violations dating back to 2008, when the site was first cleared.

Earlier this month, the city settled a lawsuit with the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, paying $150,000 and agreeing to other requirements.

The city also pledged to comply with a list of conditions from the state’s Environmental Protection Agency and paid a $40,000 fine.

With that settled, contractors are “ready to go to work,” said Ray Neal of Winter Construction.

“We plan on ... moving dirt and laying pipe on Monday or Tuesday of next week,” he said.

Reid & Reid Contractors will do the site work for about $1.4 million, while Optum Construction Group will handle pre-engineering of the metal building for about $1.5 million.

Gravitt and the council went with Richard Webb & Associates for the surveying, though the firm’s bid of $26,912 wasn’t the lowest.

The mayor said he preferred the company because it has “contractors here in town, [has a] business license and spend their money here in town.”

Whitley Steel will provide structural steel for $551,711 and ECS Southeast will provide technical services for $44,700.

Georgia Power won the bid to provide power to the facility, a decision which Gravitt said could save about $60,000.

Despite the delay, Neal said all companies agreed to honor their original bids, which were made about nine months ago.

In a related development Tuesday night, council discussed how the proposed Department of Driver Services building on Pilgrim Mill could have its own entrance, separate from the nearby aquatic center and surrounding projects.

Assistant City Administrator Steve Bennett received approval to acquire an easement for land on the city’s behalf to do some grading and site work for the entrance.

Gravitt said the separate entrance would enhance traffic flow to the facility.