For more than two years, Jasper city officials have said they will “explore every option” to fix the city’s water and sewer problems. Last week, Pickens County commissioners put a new option on the table, and city leaders took offense.
No one likes hearing their government might be merged out of existence. But the city opened this door when it asked the county to take over its out-of-city water customers. And with their own words, leaving no stone unturned means all options.
At last week’s joint meeting, Chairman Kris Stancil said the county has been talking with state legislators and legal counsel about consolidating Jasper and Pickens County into one government. Commissioner Josh Tippens called consolidation a last resort. We don’t see it that way. After more than two years with almost nothing to show for it, the city isn’t in a position to rule anything out.
The city has blocked almost all new water and sewer hookups since September 2024, and officials say the suspension will last until at least September 2027. By the mayor’s own figure, the system loses 44% of its water to leaks. Earlier this month, 10 property owners, including the county’s largest developer, served the city with notices of potential claims totaling $314 million. A hospital expansion is stalled.
The county says its engineers have mapped the out-of-city service areas and have a plan to take them over. The easiest first step, in the Cove Road and Grandview Road area, would require moving a single meter, Commissioner Josh Tatum has said. Yet five months after the two governments last met, city officials still couldn’t say how many homes would be affected or what a fair price would be.
A letter to the editor in this week’s paper puts it well: “What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say.”
And water is only part of it. Animal control, fire and police protection, recreation and public works are all places where the city and county overlap. Why should taxpayers pay for two sets of administrators, two budgets and two sets of elected officials? One government would mean one budget, one plan for growth and utilities, and one set of officials every resident can vote for.
About 57% of voters in Macon and Bibb County approved consolidation there in 2012, expecting a government 20% smaller within four years. By 2015, then-Mayor Robert Reichert said the county was ahead of that goal and had eliminated the old city tax rate, worth about $7.7 million, according to the Union-Recorder. Ten years later, former Macon-Bibb leaders told 13WMAZ that lower taxes, better efficiency and economic development were among its biggest payoffs. Reichert said the new government met most of its goals and “helped Maconites in the long run.”
That doesn’t mean consolidation would solve Jasper’s problems. It wouldn’t create new water sources and leaking lines would still have to be replaced and paid for. Nobody knows yet what would happen to city employees, city debt, police and fire protection, or taxes. A study would answer those questions, and Georgia has eight consolidated governments to learn from, from Athens-Clarke and Augusta-Richmond to rural Georgetown-Quitman. City officials could look at how those mergers went instead of treating the idea as an insult.
Consolidation would need an act of the Legislature and approval from voters in both Jasper and Pickens County. This is a longterm study, unfortunately. It won’t solve a water problem any time soon.
Stancil himself has noted that under consolidation, his own job could be one that will disappear. Whose office survives shouldn’t be the main concern anyway. The people who pay for city and county services should be the top priority, and too many of them are still waiting on water meters.
If the city has a better plan, let’s see it. Jasper residents have waited long enough.
And even if city hall does find a way out of the water suspension, we still say consolidation is an idea that deserves serious consideration.
