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Fayetteville joins toilet rebate program, begins sidewalk project |
2010-01-25 |
By Martha Barksdale |
Fayetteville residents who replace their older toilets with new water-conserving models will be eligible to get some money back now that the city has joined the Metro Water District Rebate Program.
The city council voted at its meeting Thursday night to join the program. Several other nearby utilities, including the Fayette County water department, are already participating.
According to Fayetteville Water Director Rick Eastin, anyone who lives in a home built in 1993 or earlier and has a paid-up residential account with the city utility department is eligible for the rebates. A homeowner is eligible for a $50 rebate for adding a 1.6 gallon toilet and $100 for a 1.28 gallon toilet. Eastin said the limit is rebates for two toilets per household for a maximum of $200.
When water customers replace a toilet, Eastin said they can call the city and will be referred to the metro water district Web site or given a phone number to call. They will have to submit receipts and a rebate application to the metro water district, which will check with the city to make sure the account is in good standing. Then the district will authorize the city to grant a credit on the homeowner's water bill.
Eastin said the district will take care of most of the accounting for the program and will charge the city $10 for each approved toilet rebate. The council approved his request to allocate $3,000 for the current year, with the understanding that the city could pull out of the program at any time. Eastin said water departments similar in size to Fayetteville's had allocated $500 to $1,500 for rebates.
The Metropolitan North Georgia Water District Water Conservation Plan requires that all water departments institute a toilet rebate program. Fayetteville Mayor Ken Steele pointed out the importance of water conservation, saying toilets account for 20 percent of household water usage.
The council also voted to work with the Georgia Department of Transportation on three sidewalk construction projects: White Road from Highway 314 to Heaton Lakes; Highway 92 (Forrest Avenue) from Highway 85 to Timberlane Drive and Hood Avenue from Highway 85 to Gingercake Landings.
These projects are part of the Connecting Sidewalks project, designed to link activity centers in the city.
The project will be funded through the Transportation Enhancement Activities program. The total estimated project amount is $630,000 with a federal match of $504,000. The local match of $126,000 is coming from SPLOST funds. Steele noted that SPLOST money can only be spent on purposes stipulated when the SPLOST was adopted.
Steele also took the opportunity to point out that they had received many calls about sidewalk construction on Highway 314, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. He noted that this project, planned for many years, was being funded by federal stimulus money designated to go to "shovel-ready" projects.
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