VALDOSTA — The City of Valdosta will begin development of water and sewer infrastructure to “Island 69C2” near the end of September, after the City Council approved a bid contract at a regular meeting last Thursday. The island includes residences along Blitch, Dogwood, Moss, Melbor and Magnolia streets.

The approved bid of $886,300 came in $13,000 below the Engineering Department estimate, and will be funded from the sixth cycle of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).

The project is part of a larger effort to provide all 86 formerly unincorporated islands within the city limits with water and sewer infrastructure. The project is set to be completed near the end of 2013, said City Manager Larry Hanson.

In 2006, the city attempted to annex 92 of the islands formerly within Lowndes County’s jurisdiction, but following litigation settled on 86, Hanson said.

So far, infrastructure has been developed for about half of those properties, the city manager said. The city focused on delivering service first to those islands in which at least 50 percent of residents requested city water and sewer service.

The vote reflected the majority of residents in the remaining areas  were content to continue using private wells and septic tanks, Hanson said, so the city focused on developing those who requested the service first.

“Those islands have pretty much been completed,” Hanson said. “The others were to be scheduled as late as possible, but the goal of completion was the end of 2013.”

Progress on retrofitting the established neighborhoods with water and sewer lines is more difficult and expensive than developing “virgin land,” Hanson said. Making headway has been slow going.

“It’s very tedious work,” Hanson said. “We’re retrofitting infrastructure to properties 20, 30, sometimes 40 years old. One has to guess or find in the field where certain infrastructure was built; things that were marked on a map were not actually in the field.”

Hurricane season weather delays could further extend the timeline of the project, Assistant Director of Utilities Jason Scarpate said. Between that and the search for existing infrastructure, Scarpate worries the 2013 deadline will be difficult to achieve, in spite of the city’s attempt to begin construction on the rest of the projects by the end of 2012.

“It’s going to be tough,” Scarpate said. “We’re making a big push and trying to get everything taken care of by the end of the year.”

Once an individual infrastructure project has begun, tropical storms can “make the environment difficult to work in,” Scarpate said, and that during an infrastructure retro-fit such as this, “there could be anything underground.”

“You could have utilities that are incorrectly located that would cause us to go back and redesign something,” Scarpate said.

Funding and finding contractors for the project, however, have not been an issue so far, Scarpate said. Contractors from the South Georgia area as well as in Atlanta and across state lines have shown great interest in the project.

While the city taps into SPLOST VI funds for the 69C2 project, development of most of the other projects has been funded with both SPLOST and loans granted by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority at an average of 3 percent interest rate, Hanson said. SPLOST funds can be used to pay this debt.

When the project began, the city estimated all infrastructure improvements would cost more than $15 million, but current estimates are nearer to $20 million in both SPLOST and GEFA loan expenditures, Hanson said.

All municipalities in the State of Georgia are required to offer water and sewer service to all residents within the city limits, according to Georgia annexation law, but requirements specify that infrastructure can be added “within a reasonable time,” Hanson said.

Water infrastructure helps city fire departments address fire emergencies; fire hydrants are included on the bill. In the meantime, residents in areas still waiting for the infrastructure improvements must rely on the service of tanker trucks to protect their homes.

“(Valdosta firefighters) have a city map. They know where the islands are, and they have prepared themselves for these incidents,” Hanson said. “We are well-prepared.”

Valdosta Fire Chief J.D. Rice agrees. Since the properties were annexed, the only structure that was completely lost to fire was a utility shed, Rice said, which he blames on volatile compounds inside the structure that exploded during the fire.

“We were able to save the homeowner’s residence, which was remarkable,” Rice said. “The only thing we lost was the siding, which was scorched.”

The city maintains a Class 2 Insurance Service Office rating on a scale of one to 10. To achieve that rating, fire services must demonstrate the ability to pump 250 gallons per minute for two hours, uninterrupted, in any given location, Rice said.

Once infrastructure is established to the remaining islands, residents will have the choice to tie into the water and sewer system, said Engineering Project Manager Jim Martinez. But once residents are connected, they will not have the option to disconnect.

“Once they’re tied on, they’re tied on,” Martinez said. “They can continue to use the well for irrigation, but those individuals would need to install a backflow preventer.”

A backflow preventer prevents the well water from entering the city water system and affecting water quality. The devices, as well as the costs incurred to hire plumbing professionals and to purchase water meters are the responsibility of the connecting resident, Martinez said.

The development of infrastructure involves either cutting straight down through roads and property to lay down the line or boring through the ground and under streets. More often, the city uses the first technique, Martinez said.

Most of the work’s cost is in the restoration of the roads and property once the infrastructure is installed, according to Martinez.

There are currently six islands under design, one with a complete design, and two out for bid, for a total of nine islands to complete the entire infrastructure project, Martinez said.

The islands are grouped together in many cases. The island in the Cherry Creek area contained 21 individual islands.

Each project can take between 90 and 180 days to complete, said Martinez. The 69C2 project is expected to take 150 days.

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