Greetings LAPOA Members,
Your LAPOA Board of Directors believes it is important for all of us to keep abreast of the happenings at Lake Athens, particularly as pertains to the Athens Municipal Water Authority (AMWA) and the Athens Marina facilities. The following article appeared in the Athens Daily Review on Saturday, January 17, 2015. It summarizes some of the topics discussed during the AMWA Board of Directors meeting on January 14, 2015. Four of your LAPOA Board members attended the AMWA Board meeting.
AMWA clarifies status
Posted: Saturday, January 17, 2015 4:59 am
By Rich Flowers News Editor
The Athens Municipal Water Authority held an executive session at its meeting on Wednesday to answer a question that came up during the dispute with the City of Athens last year.
The meeting was held at AMWA’s new location in the Hart-Morris Conservation Center at Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.
“There were conflicting documents filed at the state as to whether or not we were a municipal utility district or a conservation district,” Executive Director Wylie Pirkle said. “We got Attorney Martin Bennett to do some research on that.”
Pirkle said the result of Bennett’s study was that AMWA is a municipal utility district.
“They both operate in a little different way,” Pirkle said. “There are different protocols you have to use if you’re one or the other.”
AMWA has been operating under the belief that it is a municipal utility district, and decided to remain in that category.
On another matter, Pirkle said AMWA has taken back control of the Athens Marina. The previous operator has not been able to maintain it because of ill health.
“We’re going to take our time, and decide if we’re going to try to develop that whole piece of property,” Pirkle said. “We could just re-lease it to someone else to run it. It would be nice, because all that’s in the city limits.”
Pirkle said the marina property is beneficial to the city, and there are a number of possibilities for its future use. Pirkle said AMWA would like to talk to a consultant to get some ideas of the best use of the marina property.
Another thing AMWA wants to study is how to benefit from the water wells that are being added to the system.
“We’ve got a 200 to 250-year supply of water that will support 50,000 people,” Pirkle said. “Why wait 200 years, but rather try to pull some of that forward, and get businesses in here that are water users to bring jobs and economic impact for the area.”
“What I don’t want to see is to squander it away with the wrong kind of business,” Pirkle said. “It’s important to bring the right kinds of businesses.”
Pirkle said he’d like to have the consultant do a study, and come back with information to present to the city and the citizens about the water’s potential use.
In other action, the board authorized payment of bills, including a couple for work at the treatment plant. Those were $5,000 for a ladder cage, and $2,875 for the splash pad and overflow drain. Other payments were $1,566.48 for repair of well controls, and $7,000 for a geotechnical study at the pump station.
Also, from the AMWA website (www.athenstxwater.org): “The Board of Directors of the Athens Municipal Water Authority meets in Regular Session each month on the second Wednesday, beginning at 8:00 a.m. in the Hart-Morris Conservation Center of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center located at 5550 FM 2495, Athens, TX. The public is encouraged to attend.”
Rest assured, members of your LAPOA Board of Directors will continue to attend the AMWA Board meetings and do our best to keep you up to date on all of the happenings around Lake Athens.