Sewer is not the only obstacle to opening a new school on land donated to the community as a part of a rezoning package.

For some members of the Barrow County Board of Commissioners, the draft agreement on a memorandum of understanding with the Barrow County Board of Education presented for discussion at Tuesday's meeting could present a false promise that the county is prepared to proceed with its responsibilities for a new school facility.

With little or no money available on the horizon to assist with the necessary roadwork essential to opening a new school on Mulberry Road, the staff and legal counsel of the Board of Commissioners will be negotiating with the staff of Barrow County Schools to come up with a memo to bring back to the commissioners and to present for the first time to the school board.

Barrow County Director of Public Works Terry Darragh told commissioners the school system staff simply wants to know if they should proceed with plans to go out for bids for a new 900-student school.

Darragh explained the design for sewer would provide accommodations for future growth in the service area and was estimated based on regionally sized and regionally priced.

Staffs of the county and school system had discussed a starting point for negotiation which resulted in the draft memorandum calling for the school system to pay the first three years of an estimated $134,000 a year payment on bonded indebtedness to finance the $1.7 million project.

The discussion had been about cost-sharing since the county currently has no revenue source for this new project.

Commissioner Bill Healan points out that neither does the county have funds for the roadwork and other services which would be required should the school system fast-track the school construction.

Looking at $500,000 in road-related enhancements which Darragh said includes addressing the curve at the Russell property and the Mulberry Road alignment at Highway 53 plus widening of Mulberry Road, the memorandum would need proper wording to insure the project doesn't move forward outside the scope of the county's timeframe.

Healan said he did not want the county to be pressured into moving forward when it did not have adequate funds to finance the projects.

County Attorney Angela Davis said she would provide the legal review for a contract to address the commissioners' concern about the funding issues. She suggests putting the advance first-year payment into escrow for example to assure that there would be cash on hand before the county moved ahead with a feasibility of seeking needed future funding.

Chairman Doug Garrison said the sewer project discussion was not sprung on the commission but had been among the issues discussed at the board's retreat.

A motion by District 2 Commissioner Bill Brown, which was seconded by District 4's Isaiah Berry, was approved unanimously after clarification the negotiations will start with the school system to develop a new agreement to go to both boards for consideration at a later date.

No authorization for a sewer agreement has yet been given by the commissioners.

Originally published Wednesday, May 14, 2008