Statesboro’s city leadership has not immediately accepted a request from Bulloch County’s leadership that they change their shared Service Delivery Strategy to accommodate the county establishing its own water and sewer systems in its currently rural, southeastern corner.

Instead, Statesboro City Council during its meeting Tuesday morning, May 2, approved a negotiating position statement setting limits on what the city will accept. Of course, this discussion stems from Hyundai Motor Group’s burgeoning construction of its electric vehicle and battery plant, expected to eventually employee more than 8,000 people at the Joint Development Authority Mega Site in northern Bryan County, as well as construction by other manufacturers and warehousing companies in Bulloch around the I-16 corridor and related interest in residential development.

Since summer 2022, the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners staff, led by County Manager Tom Couch, has proposed establishing the county’s first county-operated water and sewer utilities in the Southeast Bulloch area.

“We have identified the need to amend the Bulloch County Service Delivery Strategy to include Bulloch County as a water and wastewater provider,” commissioners Chairman Roy Thompson stated in a March 15 letter to Statesboro Mayor Jonathan McCollar, copied to the city and county managers.

The attached version of the Service Delivery Strategy, or SDS, agreement included, among other maps, one of a county “water service area” and another of a county “wastewater service area.” The same proposed area in the southeastern portion of the county was highlighted on both maps.

Thompson stated that the county staff had also “prepared new Statesboro water and wastewater service area maps to accurately depict the service areas within the Interstate 16 & U.S. 301 Gateway Tax Allocation District.” Changes to Statesboro’s map were required “due to the recent announcements of additional industrial developments to be served by the City of Statesboro,” he wrote.

The county commissioners voted April 18 to approve the county’s version of the SDS amendment.

City’s resolution

But City Council came into its May 2 regular meeting with a proposed “resolution establishing negotiating positions” regarding that amendment.

A Georgia law requires counties and their municipalities to have Service Delivery Strategy agreements, spelling out which local governments provide which services to reduce duplication. Bulloch County’s current SDS agreement, which involves Brooklet, Portal and Register as well as Statesboro and the county government, was adopted in 2019. Unless amended, it would remain as it is until 2029.

Statesboro City Manager Charles Penny told the mayor and council members that the maps the county submitted “are a little bit contrary” to what Statesboro and county officials discussed during a joint meeting Nov. 29. The county’s proposed map, he observed, extended its proposed utilities service area to include the I-16 interchange on Georgia Highway 67.

“In the history of the city of Statesboro and Bulloch County, we have extended our infrastructure down 301 to I-16,” Penny said. “That infrastructure being extended down to I-16 has resulted in, basically, an economic boom for Bulloch County and the city of Statesboro.”

That Bruce Yawn Commerce Park at the interchange is now “completely full” of industries under construction “is evidence of our collaboration with the county,” he said.

“So the next logical step would seem to me that in extending our infrastructure, it would go down 67 and I-16,” Penny said. “The maps that the county has provided basically would prevent the city from going down to I-16.”

The county’s map, he said, would have any future extension of Statesboro’s water system down Highway 67 stop just before the Denmark community.

“The city of Statesboro is not opposed to the county operating a water system,” Penny said. “Our research indicates that counties are getting into the business of water systems. But one thing we do want to be clear about: when providing the SDS and providing those maps, it’s easier to expand the district than to start out large and then contract the district.”

Two key points

He emphasized two key points of the city’s negotiating positions, without reading them aloud.

One states: “City specifically does not object to the establishment of County water and wastewater service areas in the southeastern portion of the County as long as such systems terminate no less than a mile east of the I-16/Hwy. 67 interchange.”

The other declares: “City shall not agree to the establishment of City wastewater service areas outside of City water service areas in any degree.”

Phoned Friday, Penny said this position reflects the fact that extending sewer service is roughly twice as expensive as extending water, so that building out sewerage alone would greatly limit the city’s ability to recoup its investment. Extending a city water line down Highway 67 has been estimated to cost about $7 million or $8 million, but expanding sewer service to the same area would probably cost more than $15 million, he said.

The city’s resolution contains other points. One would require than any new private water systems be built to “municipal standards” for fire protection, at least in areas served by the Statesboro Fire Department. Another would grant the city a voting seat on the Development Authority of Bulloch County.

Another statement in the list seeks to demarcate a wastewater service area for Brooklet as it establishes sewer service in cooperation with Statesboro. Yet another states that the city will “retain outside counsel to analyze any tax inequities” left from the 2019 SDS negotiations.

‘Work together’

“The city of Statesboro … we consider ourselves to be a part of the county,” Penny said Tuesday. “We are not competitors with the county.  We would love no more than to just simply work with the county for the greater good of our entire county. We believe that if we work together we could extend water and sewer down 67 to I-16.”

District 1 City Councilman Phil Boyum said the SDS is supposed to be negotiated.

“SDS stands for Service Delivery Strategy,” he said. “‘Strategy’ is the key there. And the SDS is what is called a negotiated agreement. It means the parties that are involved should sit down and discuss the agreement. Now the SDS proposal that was passed by the county two weeks ago was done so with absolutely zero negotiation with the county seat and the largest city, half the population of the county.”

He said the SDS law was written so that counties and cities would work together.

“So we don’t want there to be an adversarial, competitive sort of an arrangement going on,” said District 5 Councilwoman Shari Barr. “We are very eager to work together to serve all of the people of Statesboro and Bulloch County, so thank you staff and thank you council for getting us one step closer to that by writing out and adopting this resolution that clearly states what the city feels able and willing to do.”

‘Never tipped off’

But Couch, the county manager, when phoned Friday, indicated that he had been busy with the county’s budget process and had not been informed of the city’s resolution.

“I was never tipped off, nor did I expect, that this would come back as negotiating positions because we purposely in drawing our maps tried to stay away from the utility areas of both Statesboro and Brooklet, because we didn’t want to compete or be a threat to either of their utilities,” Couch said.

On looking at the resolution, he said, “This is stunning,” but added that he would have to study it further before knowing how to react.

He noted that the request had been sent to the city more than six weeks ago.