Athens purchasing land for new utility customer accounts building

Mar. 15—ATHENS — Two weeks after two council members objected to the cost of an office lease approved for Athens Utilities, a unified City Council took the first step toward constructing a new building that eventually will make renting unnecessary.

The council on Monday unanimously approved purchasing eight acres on South Jefferson Street for $800,000 so an Athens Utilities customer service facility can be built there.

Harold Wales, Athens City Council president and District 2 councilman, said Athens Utilities needs to move out of its old customer accounts building on Jefferson Street because it's in bad shape. He said the building may be 70 years or older.

"The drive-thru window, when it rains, it runs in the window," Wales said. "We would have to take the whole side out of that building in order to make repairs on it. And we don't want to invest that kind of money in that older building."

Wales said the current location is also too small to serve Athens Utilities' needs.

"The way our city has grown and (with) so many new customers, they're just out of room to put anybody to be able to serve the citizens," he said.

Athens needs to build a bigger building, Wales said. The current building only has one teller drive-thru.

"The lines are just backed up something terrible," Wales said.

At the Feb. 27 council meeting, the council voted 3-2 in favor of leasing an old bank building at 1003 U.S. 72 E. with four teller drive-thru windows beginning March 1. Councilman Chris Seibert and Councilwoman Dana Henry both voted in favor while Councilman James Lucas and Wales voted against the resolution. Councilman Wayne Harper hesitated before ultimately voting in favor.

The cost of rent will be $85,000 annually. In response to the meeting, Wales said he thought it was too much rent and that the city should build its own facility. Tuesday, Wales said he is happy that once the new building is complete the city will no longer have to pay to lease a facility.

"That is a tremendous amount of rent that we're paying on that old bank building that we rented," he said. "It's a good location and it will serve the purpose because it's got so many drive-thru windows, but it's just something we don't need to be paying, that kind of rent, on and on and on."

Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks said the next step toward building a new facility will involve getting the site tested.

"To make sure that there are no issues related to the property; I don't think there are," he said. "It's been an open farmland for some time."

Marks said, after the land is tested, the city will hire an architect to design a building.

"Maybe we can have those plans back in the next three or four months and maybe bid the project and move dirt this fall," he said. "That's fast-tracking it, but I hope we can make it work as soon as possible."

Marks said he hopes it will be completed by summer or fall of 2024.

"I hope it's a 12-month project," he said.

Athens City Clerk Annette Barnes said the funds to purchase the land will be split between all Athens Utilities departments.

"The funds to purchase the land will come from the utilities bond funds and are to be shared by the gas, water/wastewater and electric departments," she said.

The city will pay $100,000 per acre plus closing costs, Barnes said.

"No estimate yet on the closing costs, but they would be typical costs associated with any real estate purchase, such as title search, legal fees, survey, etc.," she said.

Barnes said after an architect designs a building, the city will know more about building costs.

"An estimate of the construction costs, based on that design, would be determined at that time," she said. "We would then determine the source of funding for the building construction."

—erica.smith@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2460.