Audio clip
Ronnie Cobb
FORT OGLETHORPE -- City leaders are planning a sewer expansion along U.S. Highway 41 to prepare for commercial growth that may come from Project Hilltop.
"If we're not ready, we're going to have a whole lot of requests and not be able to serve those businesses," Mayor Ronnie Cobb told the City Council at a recent meeting.
The council voted to approve the engineering work that would likely put a sewer line on each side of the highway from its intersection with Cloud Springs Road to the state line.
Mr. Cobb and other leaders have long expected growth along Cloud Springs once it was widened to four lanes. The road work is expected to be completed later this year.
Coupling the widening of U.S. 41 with news of a major retailer coming to Cloud Springs as soon as August had the mayor and other council members expecting plenty more development.
"Once it gets kicked off, we're going to have a lot of growth in that area," Councilman Louis Hamm said. "You've always got to be prepared for future growth."
Mr. Cobb said he expects a mix of retail and other commercial growth in the area, but Mr. Hamm said the pipes would probably be built big enough to handle an industrial tenant.
Officials said the engineering on the sewer expansion could take six months but called it an important step to getting ahead of the growth.
"You don't just don't go out and start putting sewer down," Mr. Hamm said.
Andy began working at the Times Free Press in July 2008 as a general assignment reporter before focusing on Northwest Georgia and Georgia politics in May of 2009. Before coming to the Times Free Press, Andy worked for the Anniston Star, the Rome News Tribune and the Campus Carrier at Berry College, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2006. He is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee ...
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