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  • Local officials discuss the Duck River reservoir plan. TRENT MOORE

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January 5, 2011

Customers may gain control of Duck River reservoir

By Trent Moore The Cullman Times

CULLMAN — If current plans hold, a board made up of local wholesale water customers should control the proposed Duck River reservoir in about 30 years.

With construction set to begin on the approximately $70 million secondary water source project later this year, city and county officials met Tuesday to map out some long-term plans for who will have authority over the lake once bonds are eventually repaid.

The proposed 640-acre reservoir will be located east of Lake Catoma and north of U.S. Highway 278, and will include a six-mile pipeline with a 32 million gallon-per-day capacity. The majority of the project will be funded by 30 year bonds — to be repaid with water revenue — though the funding specifics have yet to be set.

City of Cullman attorney Roy Williams, who has worked on the project for several years, recommended the utilities board establish a new water authority that will eventually assume management and ownership of the lake in the future.

The proposed entity would consist of representatives selected by the city’s wholesale water customers — Cullman County, Walter, East Cullman, Cullman Water Department and Vinemont, Anon and West Point (VAW) Water Authority — and would assume authority of the lake from the city utilities board once the bonds used to build the dam are repaid.

The advisory board can be established at anytime, though a legislative act will be required to eventually give the board authority over the lake.

Officials hopes to establish the advisory board before the projected completion date of the dam project in summer 2015.



— Look for the full story in the Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011, edition of The Cullman Times

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