Paving of the first of Hogansville’s remaining dirt streets has begun, although City Council members still are finalizing their list of paving priorities for the rest of their share of special-purpose local-option sales tax money.

Hutchins-Moody Road, a dirt street, has been on the city’s priority list for years but always was held up because property rights of way could not be acquired. Troup County, which made a deal with Hogansville to pave its streets, did the work.

“It’s paved. Amen,” said City Manager Bill Stankiewicz. “We want to thank Troup County for helping us out.”

The next three streets to be paved, all dirt, include Boozer, King and Russell streets. Stankiewicz said Russell Road will be paved last because a water line runs down the middle of the street and will have to be moved as part of the paving process.

After that, it’s anyone’s guess which roads will get paved – council has debated what priorities should be at two of its last three regular meetings.The city should wind up having about $2.9 million in special-tax money to use for paving and some streets in the city are years behind for improvements. The city has been planning for repaving for at least two years, even taking a “tour” of some of the worst areas.

On Dec. 1, City Councilwoman Jean Crocker suggested that Lincoln, Boyd and Askew streets, which are some of the most traveled in the city, be next after the dirt streets are complete.

“I just know those are some of the worst streets and they’re through streets,” she said.

Stankiewicz asked council members again to submit their priorities so a list may be finalized.

Meanwhile, work on the city’s water line to Coweta County should be complete by mid-January. The city decided earlier this year it would be too expensive to replace its water plant and instead made plans with Coweta County to get water from there, via a line on Norwood Road. The city already receives some of its water supply from LaGrange and West Point Lake.

Although the line extends into Coweta County, city officials say they’re paying just $300,000 – the rest of the estimated cost as well as labor is being paid for by Coweta County. Councilman Jack Leidner said the line connecting Hogansville to LaGrange cost $884,000 and the Coweta County line is just as long.

“We’re only paying for our portion,” Leidner said.

The water line should be operational by February when the city finally can close its Oak Street water plant. Although the city has won awards for its water quality, the plant has needed major renovations for several years. Hogansville had planned to use the first portion of its special-tax money – $500,000 – to replace the plant. However, a study completed earlier this year showed replacing the plant with a large enough facility to accommodate future growth would be cost prohibitive. Instead, the city made the deal with Coweta County. Money leftover from the $500,000 earmarked for water and sewer improvements is being used on other sewer upgrades.

In nearby Meriwether County, work is progressing on infrastructure upgrades to Meriwether Park, which will be home to Dongwon, a Kia Motors supplier, and other industries, as well as the proposed Turkey Run landfill. The county water authority was awarded one of nine “equity” grants to fund construction of a water line from Hogansville to the park. Hogansville will provide water to the project but only will be responsible for installing a water meter at the Troup-Meriwether county line, Stankiewicz said. The total cost of the project is $14 million.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@la-grangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.