Sandy Springs residents pay 21 percent more for the drinking water they get from the city of Atlanta than residents of Atlanta pay and Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos wants that changed.
This is not a new issue. However, now that the city is incorporated the mayor feels it has the bargaining power residents previously did not have when they lived in an unincorporated part of Fulton County.
What really angers Mayor Galambos is that, while Sandy Springs residents pay higher water rates than the residents of Atlanta, the water Sandy Springs gets is cheaper to deliver.
She told a gathering of more than 40 Harry Norman Realtors agents and managers on Aug. 8 (see related story on page 15) that the water that comes to Sandy Springs, through the city of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, actually comes from a plant in North Fulton that is an exceedingly more efficient and less costly operating plant than the Hemphill Plant that provides most of the water for Atlanta residents.
The mayor indicated she intends to challenge the city of Atlanta regarding those higher water charges and evaluate alternatives that might result in lower water costs for Sandy Springs residents.
–John Schaffner