At a Pickens County Commissioner’s Meeting on Thursday, June 28th, Pickens County sought to make improvements to infrastructures for the County.In the meeting, the sole Commissioner Robert Jones adopted a resolution awarding a tentative contract for the construction of water system improvements to a Tate water line that was installed in 1988. Commissioner Jones said that company BT. Stanco was the lowest responsive bidder on the water line project. Jones also told FYN that the project would start at the beginning on Hwy 53 North of Tate at Parker Road, across 53 at North Station Street and into the south end of Tate, and across Old Hwy 5. The route will then follow Apple Orchard Road until the first intersection on Pickens Street. The contract is in the amount of $335, 765.45 and will consist of the uprading of six inch water line pipes to C900 Class 5 eight inch pipes. Jones said in the meeting that the reason for the upgrading of the pipe was because of breakage and deteoriating of the pipeline for many years. A GEFA grant will be used to replace the old lines that are in the ground. According to Jones, the project should start at the beginning of next week.

Also in the meeting, Jones announced that the County had closed on a piece of property in order to relocate a water tank and pumping station in Tate. The relocation of the water tank and pumping station is in preparation for a Department of Transportation (DOT) project that will straighten out the road on Hwy 53 West from Gordon County to Pickens County. Jones said that the County was able to find a piece of property to relocate the equipment and that the DOT would reimburse the County once the project started. The project is expected to begin in 2014. Jones told FYN that the County was able to buy a seven acre piece of property for $34,000 for the relocation of the water tank and pumping station.

Lastly, the County accepted a proposal by Ellijay Telephone Company for a project that will install new phone systems in the Pickens County Courthouse. The accepted proposal was for a total amount of $165,397.95 and will include distribution cabling, workstation cabling, public addressing, ethernet switches, and telephones.

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