By Noah Ansley
CNI News Service
Musselwhite
A public hearing on using eminent domain to expand Demorest’s water system has been rescheduled.
The Demorest City Council will now hold the hearing at 6 p.m. on Sept. 16. It was originally scheduled to take place during the Sept. 1 regular meeting. Notice was provided to The Northeast Georgian via email at 10:01 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 21.
The city plans to build an interbasin water transfer and water treatment facility on property owned by Johnny and David Irvin.
The parcels, totaling 9.61 acres, are in Rabun County in the city limits of Tallulah Falls.
Mayor Jerry Harkness said the meeting was moved because of a quitclaim deed, which changed the property’s ownership.
“Once we received notice that the property had a quitclaim, we had to extend it to the 16th,” Harkness said.
The only item on the Sept. 16 agenda is the eminent domain expansion, according to Demorest City Manager Mark Musselwhite. Consultant Phil Sutton will also present growth models showing that if the cities that supply water to Demorest don’t increase capacity between 2045 and 2048, Demorest will run out of water.
Musselwhite said he is unsure how they’ll approach attendance for the Sept. 16 meeting, and Harkness said the city is still working out how the public hearing will be managed.
“We had the fire marshal come give us an occupancy number. I talked to Mark yesterday about coming up with a procedure, but we don’t have that yet,” Harkness said.
According to the notice, the hearing was planned to take place at Demorest Municipal Conference Center and Court at 250 Alabama St.