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A Town Hall Meeting will be held on Saturday, March 11th to allow citizens an open forum to discuss the currently tabled water contract extension between the City of Cumming and Forsyth County Government.

This meeting comes as a result of outrage from citizens regarding the attempt by 3 members of the current Forsyth County Board of Commissioners to extend the contract to 2022 without proper diligence or discussion (See Majority of Board approves Phantom Water Contract)

Insiders say this public discussion might never have taken place if the 3 members who represent the majority had realized that they could not approve an intergovernmental agreement without the consent of at least one of the other 2 commissioners, David Richard, or Charlie Laughinghouse.

Over the past 2 years, many issues have been decided by a 3-2 majority, and in some cases, Commissioners Laughinghouse and Richard have not even been briefed on them prior to the vote. (See Is the MAJORITY Giving away the County?)

Commissioner Linda Ledbetter has responded to the outrage in an email sent to her supporters. Below is text from the email

First, I would like to make it very clear that every Commissioner on this Board reviewed the May 5, 1998 Water Usage contract with the City of Cumming last year. The only thing that was to be changed and was voted on was to extend the date of the contract and that was explained in our meeting.

The City of Cumming has the only water intake on Lake Lanier. The County does not have one and has been requesting one since 1977.

The City of Cumming provides 1,628,204,220 gallons of water annually to the County (averages five (5) million gallons of water per day). We must rely on the City of Cumming in order for the entire County to have enough water.

Mayor Ford Gravitt said he could not assure the County continued water service at the agreed rate without improving their facilities. In order to make that investment, the City needed assurance that the County would continue as a "customer".

I do not wish for the residents of Forsyth County to turn on their water on a hot July day only to find out that we do not have any water.

I am a steward to all of Forsyth County residents and felt it was in their best interest to support this contract extension.

Chairman Conway and the Board have today announced that consideration of this extension will be postponed from the consent agenda on Thursday night (3/2/06).

We will hold a Town Hall Meeting so that residents can ask questions of the Board and The Mayor of Cumming.

The town hall meeting wtill be Saturday, March 11th at 10AM in the county admin building, commissioners meeting room.

Both Laughinghouse and Richard have published extensive comments regarding this issue on thier websites:

www.laughinghouse.com
www.davidrichard.info

Stay tuned for more updates to this story...