The Cornelia City Commission will be talking about Christmas lights and water at their meeting on Tuesday.
Keeping the holidays lit
City manager Dee Anderson is asking city commissioners to allocate $100,000 for the town’s popular Christmas in the Park light display. He says the city has been unable to purchase new lights for the past eight years, and Mother Nature and vandals are taking their toll.
In 2022, someone drove through and destroyed three of the displays, causing approximately $50,000 in damage. This past year, a tree fell on Christmas day and destroyed another large display.
Cornelia’s Christmas in the Park has been a tradition for over 20 years. It attracts thousands of visitors each holiday season. Anderson says if the city wants to continue the tradition, “We need to allocate some funds to purchase some new displays.”
If approved, the money he’s requested would come from the city’s Capital Improvement Reserve Fund.
Water withdrawals from Tallulah Falls Lake
The city commission is also considering a $326,500 proposal from an engineering firm to design a pump station at Tallulah Falls Lake. Carter and Sloope Consulting Engineers would also map out the 19-mile route for a raw water line between the lake and the Cornelia Water Plant on Camp Creek Road.
According to Anderson, the city has been in discussions with Georgia Power and the city of Tallulah Falls for several years about obtaining a permit to withdraw water from Tallulah Falls Lake. He adds that this will be a long-term project and will ensure an adequate water supply for Cornelia for the next 50 years.
Engineers would do the surveying work to locate a suitable site for the pump station. Once they determine a location and the parties agree upon it, engineers would begin designing the station to pump 6 million gallons of raw water to Cornelia’s water plant each day.
As part of their proposal, Carter and Sloope would produce a preliminary engineering report, handle the permitting process with Georgia Power and EPD, and design the raw water pump station and transmission line.
Meeting times and locations
The Cornelia City Commission work session is on Tuesday, February 6, at 5 p.m. in the Municipal Building Conference Room. The regular city commission meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building Courtroom.
Both meetings are in Cornelia City Hall at 181 Larkin Street in Cornelia. The meetings are open to the public.
