Despite advertisements that have been published for months, Peachtree City has been unable so far to find a qualified person to hire as its storm water engineer.

According to a report on the Citizen.com, city staff may soon propose a change to the qualifications, which include that the person be a certified professional engineer with storm water experience. The certification would allow the engineer to work on other city projects as needed, officials explained.

Council could also elect to keep the qualifications as-is but increase the proposed pay scale.

The city’s storm water utility is up and running, collecting annual bills between $32 and $72 for homeowners based on the amount of impervious surface on the parcel.

Non-residential property owners are getting monthly bills in part because those fees will be much higher than those for residential units. For example, the Wal-Mart store will be charged $614 a month and McIntosh High School will be charged $553. The much smaller Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant would only be assessed $43 a month.

Those figures do not include “credits” that can be calculated to account for on-site storm water detention and other factors.

In February, council approved a $1.45 million budget for storm water programs, and the city has developed a $3.5 million capital improvement plan for storm water projects that would be financed over a 20-year period and repaid with revenue from the storm water fees.

All told, the city’s commercial and industrial properties will pay $208,000 a year in storm water fees while residential properties will pay $268,000 a year.

Source: citizen.com