By Tom Bevirt By now, you have received a notice that you will pay about $36 per property for a waste water fee. So what is this about and why were so many of you calling the city complaining that you did not know anything about this? I will try to explain a complicated situation. The state informed all cities that they had to do a study of their waste water problem, then do something about it based on guidelines put down by them. This is a mandated program. If the cities don't do it, they get fined. Our information from a citizens review and studies indicated that it would cost the city …

By Tom Bevirt In the fall, the Powder Springs City Council passed a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a letter of endorsement with a private company to allow citizens to insure their own water and sewer lines. I might say that this was pushed by yours truly. Here is how it will work: Come March, you will receive a letter from Utility Partners explaining how you can, for $10 a month, insure your water and sewer lines should there be a break. Do not throw this notice away. This could save you big bucks. Anyone who has had a break knows how expensive it is to repair these lines. Some …

By Tom Bevirt Last fall, the Public Works Department spent a great deal of time and effort to determine if contracting out sanitation services to a private company made financial sense. The findings were that it would save the city a good deal of money, especially if you figured it out over a period of years. The council decided, with some concerns about the employees, to send out bids. With that done, the mayor and city manager held a meeting with the sanitation workers and told them that they would be laid off come January 1, 2012. This was not an easy decision for anyone. Our workers are …

By Tom Bevirt This column continues its discussion of Powder Springs government. Last time, I touched on the budget; this week I need to expand on this boring but vital topic. All units of government, if they don't do much of anything else, are required to have a yearly budget, made available to the public. There must be public hearings for the citizens to view, ask questions about, and comment on the budget. Here is how this works: Each year, the department heads—Public Works, police, finance and Community Development—must submit what they will need and what income, if any, they expect to …

By Tom Bevirt It is my hope that these columns will inform our citizens about the workings of our city government now and especially for the past 12 years that I was honored to serve as your city council member at large (meaning entire city). Ours is a city manager-mayor-council form of government. This means that the mayor and council hire a person to be a city manager who will run the day-to-day operations of the city. The mayor and council are not to interfere with the manager or their job. They will review the manager's performance at various times during the year and make comments or …