The Bulloch County commissioners and the Brooklet and Statesboro city councils all approved agreements this week to clear the way toward Brooklet establishing a city sewer system and connecting it to Statesboro’s.

Brooklet’s businesses, churches, elementary school and most of its homes still rely on septic tanks for sewage disposal. Brooklet’s and Statesboro’s councils had approved an intergovernmental agreement in July for Brooklet to extend a sewer line far enough to connect to Statesboro’s system and then pay Statesboro to treat Brooklet’s sewage at Statesboro’s existing treatment plant.

But some further agreements were required before Brooklet makes final arrangements to borrow more than $4 million through a bond issue and – with more than $2 million already on hand from a state grant – seek a contractor for the project.

During the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners meeting the morning of Oct. 17, commissioners unanimously approved an amendment to the 10-year Service Delivery Strategy, or SDS, agreement that spells out how Bulloch County and four city governments divide responsibility for providing services.

“This is basically to accommodate Brooklet’s water and sewer,” said County Attorney Jeff Akins. “They’re going to start providing sewer, which they have never done before, and it also expands the area in which they’re authorized to provide water.”

A map now included in the SDS shows Brooklet’s potential sewer service area extending well beyond its current city limits. Bounded by Burkhalter Road on the northwest and Rushing Road and Beulah Lane on the west and Brooklet-Leefield Road on the north, the mapped potential service area extends as far eastward as Stilson-Leefield Road’s intersection with Pless Clifton Road and as far south as a section of Mud Road.

But Brooklet has no immediate plan to build such a large sewer system.

Right of way

By another unanimous vote, the commissioners granted an easement for Brooklet to install its main sewer line, connecting to the Statesboro system, along county-owned right of ways. The easement extends from Statesboro’s current lift station near the Five Points roundabout along the old S&S Railroad right of way – where the S&S Greenway Trail runs and is planned to be extended – all the way to Brooklet, Akins noted.

Representative officials of the county and of Brooklet’s city government agreed to the general concept in August, but putting the details in writing took a while because consulting engineers had to determine the exact route, he said.

Brooklet has agreed to compensate the county for any cost resulting from the use of the easement.

“Primarily that was put in here because there may be some wetlands that are impacted, and they understand they’re going to be responsible for the cost of that,” Akins aid.

County said ‘yes’

After the commissioners voted, Chairman Roy Thompson commented that if any town needs a sewer system, Brooklet does. He also called “totally false” a comment he had seen from someone claiming that he and County Manager Tom Couch had said “no” to the idea of a Brooklet sewer connected to Statesboro’s. In fact, they had said “yes” to the idea at meetings with Brooklet and Statesboro leaders, with attorneys present, Thompson reported.

He then addressed remarks to Brooklet City Councilman Nicky Gwinnett, who attended the county commissioners meeting and is set to become Brooklet’s next mayor.

“Again, I concur,” Thompson told him. “Move full steam ahead, because y’all really need it down there.”

Gwinnett thanked the commissioners and said, “It’s a really big step for Brooklet.”

Brooklet follows through

On Thursday evening, Oct.  19, Brooklet City Council unanimously accepted the right of way easement and approved the Service Delivery Strategy amendment, which were then signed by current Brooklet Mayor Joe Grooms III.

Grooms remains mayor through December but did not seek re-election for a second four-year term. Gwinnett, a lifelong Brooklet resident who has served the current term on City Council after one previous term on the council about a decade earlier, is the only candidate for mayor in the Nov. 7 election.

Gwinnett’s committee assignment as a council member, public works, had already involved him directly in planning for the sewer system. Talking to reporters Oct. 17, he said he expects construction to begin “sometime next year,” probably around the middle of the year.

“Priority 1 is getting the line to Statesboro, and then the next priority is to get (Brooklet’s) downtown so that we don’t lose our best restaurant,” Gwinnett said. “And honestly, that’s why all those buildings downtown are empty now, because (property owners) won’t renovate because there are too many problems to deal with septic systems.”

With three members present, Statesboro City Council approved the SDS amendment on a 3-0 vote that evening, Oct. 17, and did not have a role in the right of way easement.

Brooklet’s mayor and council discussed their proposed new Water and Wastewater Ordinance during a work session before their regular meeting Thursday. A further work session on this topic is slated for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 9, possibly followed by a first reading and preliminary vote during the regular 7 p.m. Nov. 16 council meeting, reports Brooklet City Clerk Lori Phillips.

Council members also received a preliminary timeline of steps toward the bond issuance, but they have requested further documents for the next meeting.

Statesboro’s role

As previously reported, the intergovernmental agreement between Statesboro and Brooklet, approved in July, states that Brooklet’s sewer system is expected to send Statesboro’s plant less than 100,000 gallons per day of wastewater at first, not to exceed 300,000 gpd within five years.

Brooklet will pay Statesboro a one-time $160,000 “aid to construction fee” for the first 100,000 gallons-per-day capacity in two installments: the first $80,000 within 90 days of Brooklet giving a contractor a notice to proceed with building its sewer system, and the second $80,000 on or before the day Brooklet’s sewage begins flowing to Statesboro’s plant.

Statesboro would then charge Brooklet 1.5 times Statesboro’s in-city residential sewer rate for 1,000 gpd of sewer flow, stated as $3.19 as of July 1, 2023.

Beginning in the future whenever its sewer flow exceeds 100,000 gallons per day, Brooklet would pay Statesboro a second one-time aid to construction fee of $640,000 for an additional 200,000 gpd capacity.

Brooklet’s planners have said that when the second-tier, 300,000-gpd limit is reached, it may become more cost-efficient for Brooklet to build its own wastewater treatment plant.

Statesboro’s plant has a permitted capacity of 10 million gpd.