Catoosa County to extend sewer line to school, Shaw flooring plant

photo Shaw Industries, Inc., is a leading manufacturer of carpets and flooring.
Arkansas-Georgia Live Blog

RINGGOLD, Ga. - Tiger Creek Elementary School will get sewer service and a Shaw Industries Inc. plant will have an inducement to stay open under a pending agreement to extend sewer lines to exit 345 on Interstate 75.

Catoosa County plans to use $5 million from its special purpose local option sales tax to extend sewer lines more than three miles from Christian Road along the west side of I-75 to south of U.S. Highway 41.

The County Commission approved its part of the agreement Tuesday.

The new line will serve the Shaw flooring plant at 388 Armstrong Road, which now is on a septic system. The county has promised to extend sewer service to Shaw as an incentive to keep the factory open.

Because sewer service is coming in that direction, the Catoosa County Board of Education asked for the line to be extended to Tiger Creek Elementary, which will require drilling east underneath Highway 41 and Tiger Creek.

"It's going to help us quite a bit there [at the school]," said Billy J. McDaniel, a Catoosa County board of education member. "We were beginning to foresee some problems with the septic system. It's something that's been needed for a long period of time. As you increase students, you increase the flow of sewage."

The school district will pay half the cost to bring the sewer line east of I-75. The county and Ringgold each will pay one-quarter of the cost.

Property owners on the east side of Highway 41 have agreed to donate easements required to install the sewer line, said Catoosa County Attorney C. Chad Young.

Sewer service "always improves the value of the property," Young said.

County Commissioner DeWayne Hill said the sewer project was a "win-win" that would preserve jobs and help the school district.

"The school does need that [line] tremendously to get off that septic system that they have there," Hill said.

While praising the project, he also noted, "it's kind of sad that we're just now getting sewer to an exit on I-75 after all these years."

The Ringgold City Council is expected to approve the project at its meeting on Feb. 13.

"The council's already agreed in theory," City Manager Dan Wright said. "They voted on that a week or so ago."

The sewer line extension was spelled out in a 2008 measure in which Catoosa voters reauthorized the 1 percent SPLOST for another five years.

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