By Representative James Burchett (176th District)
As communities in Georgia have grown in prior years, many of them have built locally funded and managed sewer and water systems – a tangible example of residents in a developed area working together to provide these important services to their neighbors.
While in our more rural areas well water and septic still serve us, communities like Pearson rely on a locally managed sewer and water system to serve its residents and Atkinson County’s school students.
When local governments are able to dedicate revenues toward upkeep and maintenance, these systems serve us well.
As your elected Representative at the state level, I am proud to support efforts to provide funding for communities like Pearson every year, recognizing that infrastructure improvements may be easy to fund in big cities but can be harder for smaller communities like ours.
Unfortunately, Pearson has not had the local revenue available to maintain its sewer and water system and has been unable to meet the requirements to receive state funds to address these needs.
After learning about these issues and immediate risks they posed to Pearson and Atkinson County residents in recent weeks, I began working with city and county leaders to negotiate a solution.
I’m proud that in recent days these community efforts have come together to allow us to take an important step forward for Atkinson County residents. In recent days the city of Pearson and Atkinson County both agreed to allow Atkinson County to take over management of the sewer and water system in Pearson.
This agreement will allow Atkinson County to qualify for state funds to address immediate system needs, keeping our neighbors safe and preserving this important asset for our community.
I’m proud of our local leaders at both the County and City levels for working together to address this important issue. The people of Pearson have endured these problems for far too long—and we deserve more than temporary fixes. We deserve reliable, safe water every day.
I will continue to work with our local leaders to move this important effort forward – providing assistance they ask for to support their efforts and working closely with state and federal agencies to ensure we have the dependable water and sewer infrastructure we deserve.
Representative James Burchett represents the citizens of District 176, which includes Atkinson and Lanier Counties, as well as portions of Coffee, Lowndes and Ware counties. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2019 and currently serves as the House Majority Whip.