Cobb, Austell, Powder Springs to ink service partnerships

Chart Riggall, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·2 min read

Aug. 23—Cobb County government is set to renew two service agreements with the cities of Austell and Powder Springs.

The former of those arrangements is a longstanding deal between the city and county originating in the 1953 formation of the Austell Natural Gas System, the only city-owned gas company in Cobb.

At the time, the city agreed to pay 3% of the system's revenues (from all but industrial customers) to Cobb for use of county roadways and right-of-way. Then, in 2005, the county agreed to terms for additional services it would provide the city. Those include traffic signal operation and maintenance, road sign manufacturing, salt spreading during winter storms, and maintenance of five bridges.

(Austell, meanwhile, receives 11% of the system's revenues into its general fund.)

The present renewal agreement, up for consideration by the Board of Commissioners Tuesday, would extend it to 2024. At that point, per an agenda item from Transportation Director Drew Raessler, the county expects to renegotiate its service agreements with all six cities.

Meanwhile in Powder Springs, the county is expected to extend an agreement under which its fleet management department will service city vehicles. The deal was first inked in 2020, and the city, according to an agenda item, "has determined it is in the best interest of its citizens, in the interest of efficient and cost-effective government, to continue to utilize the (county's) services."

The city will reimburse the county for any expenses, including $90 to $100 for labor. The county did not immediately respond to a request for the estimated total transaction amount.

In other business, the board will consider the following items:

— A one-year extension of a contract with Cubic Transportation Systems for operation of the county's bus fare collection system. Federal grants will cover 80% of the $96,000 cost.

— An application for a grant of up to $500,000 to help the Cobb Medical Examiner's office identify human remains of missing and unidentified people. The office has more than 20 such cases.

— The acceptance of $1.6 million in grants from the Georgia Board of Regents for the county's library system.