Things are changing for the Athens Municipal Water Authority.
By now, just about everyone living in the Athens city limits knows of the lawsuit and election struggle between AMWA and City Hall, but if you don’t you can catch up here.
AMWA wound up the big winner in the May election and that result seems to have triggered a winding down of the controversy with the two sides working toward a new contract to provide water to city residents. It also fueled a separation between the two entities, which at one time were so close that many city residents didn’t know there was a difference.
The importance of AMWA has also increased, considering water has become the prime resource in Texas.
According to a report by the State Comptroller: “Texas has been prone to cycles of drought for centuries, and there’s no reason to expect that basic pattern to change. But our state has changed, and its burgeoning population and economy are creating an increasingly unquenchable demand for water.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that AMWA board members called the water authority an “organization in transition” during a meeting Wednesday.
Board member Steve Sparkman said one of the biggest surprises to him over the past year’s events was the number of people who didn’t know AMWA existed. The board is now making a concerted effort to raise the public’s awareness of the authority.
Wednesday, the board moved to have a website created by Clever Mutt. http://www.clevermutt.com/ The website will likely cover three main topics: the lake, the official actions of the authority and economic development.
There have also been discussions about hiring another employee and getting permanent offices for the water authority, perhaps even building a facility near the Lake Athens Marina.
Directors also heard updates on the status of five wells, each in different stages of development.
All of those things are still in the discussion stage, however, and the directors seemed determined to have a special meeting to discuss just where they want to be in five years.
So transition is the right word to describe the water authority at the moment. Nobody can tell you what AMWA will look like in the future, just that it will be different than what it is now.