Chulio Hills sewer extension set for more discussion Thursday

Monday, October 2, 2023–10:32 a.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The extension of sewer service to the Chulio Hills neighborhood will be back before the Rome Water and Sewer Committee this Thursday.

The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. in the Sam King Room at Rome City Hall.

A motion to have the city manager find the money to extend sewer service to Chulio Hills failed during a Rome City Commission meeting on September 11.

During that meeting, Chulio Hills resident Ron Willis told commissioners about the cost of maintaining a septic tank.

“I have receipts dating back 29 years from having the ground dug up, field lines installed and my septic tank having to be pumped,” he said. “We’ve had to install so many feet of field line due to drainage and other issues. I just had my septic tank pumped in May, and every time they pump it, it’s $500. It was almost $3,000 to add exactly 196 feet of field line down the side of my yard, across the back of my yard, and back up the side, and all of this is because we don’t have sewer.”    

Commissioner Jim Bojo, who chairs the water and sewer committee, said efforts were underway to get a better cost estimate for the project.

“We can’t do it without a firm price,” he said. “We could have voted yes at $2 million and it ended up costing $8 million and then we would have been in a mess.”

Chulio Hills residents say they were promised sewer service 40 years ago.

Again, the discussion will continue during this Thursday’s water and sewer committee meeting.