Statesboro City Council approved a measure Tuesday that will extend water and sewer services to undeveloped tracts of land along Ga. Highway 67 and Cawana Road. 
    Council unanimously moved to award a $195,811 waterline extension contract to Tyson Utilities Construction during its regular morning meeting in the second-floor chambers of City Hall.
    The project will tie existing city water lines together and pave the way for future developments near Ga. 67, and Burkhalter and Cawana roads, City Manager Frank Parker said.
    “We are hoping we can move quickly forward with the project,” Parker said. “We are trying to service some of the undeveloped areas in the quadrant between Highway 67 and U.S. Highway 80 East.”
    Wayne Johnson, the city’s director of water and wastewater, said the project will extend a water main near the entrance of Garden District Apartments on Ga. 67 to Burkhalter Road and continue along Cawana Road.
    The line will connect to an existing pipe that leads from Brannen Street to Sally Zetterower Elementary School on Cawana Road.     The extension will allow for water services to be provided to the soon-to-be-constructed Aspen Heights apartment complex located on Ga. 67, just before Burkhalter Road, Parker said.
    Johnson said the project also will eliminate a potential problem at Sally Zetterower.
    With the water line running to the school currently cut off at Cawana Road, “if (the city) were to have a break anywhere in the line, officials would have to shut the school down because fire service would not be available.”
    The project, paid for using bond funds, will cost about $450,000 less than the city had budgeted, Johnson said.
    Work on the water extension could begin in three to four months, he said.
    The council’s next scheduled meeting is set for 6 p.m. May 15.

    Jeff Harrison may be reached at (912) 489-9454.