Hart County, Bowersville Awarded GEFA Funds

Hart County and the town of Bowersville are the recipients of the latest round of funding from the Georgia Environmental Finance Association or GEFA.

The Hart County Water and Sewer Authority was recently awarded a $2-million dollar grant loan package for the expansion of the county’s water line.

Authority Director Pat Goran said the money will be used to expand the lines in the Bethany Church area in the Southwest part of the County, which is not serviced by any county water line.

“We’re looking at putting in several miles of (water) line,” Goran said. “We will be sending out letters to people in that area asking them if they are interested in hooking on to our water system should we install it on a road they live on. Based on the response from those letters we will decide where the most interest is.”

Goran says letters will be going out to property owners in the part of the county this week.  Goran said with the GEFA loan/grant package, the county will not have to pay the entire loan amount back.

“The reason we applied for the loan, is the principle forgiveness of 25%,” he said. “That means if we choose to borrow the whole $2-million, we only have to pay back 75% of that. And the interest rates are very good, .52% is the interest on the loan.”

The $2-million dollar loan has a repayment of 10-years.  Goran said they plan to begin work as soon as possible. Meantime, the City of Bowersville also received a $96,673 Georgia Fund loan.

The money will finance installing a water line along West Main Street to service new industry west of the town.  

The project will include installing approximately 3,700 linear feet of 6-inch PVC water line and three fire hydrants.

Bowersville will pay 3.03 percent interest on the 20-year loan. The total project cost is $137,473, with Bowersville receiving $40,800 from the OneGeorgia Authority.