Cornelia’s $1.335M Circle Drive utility project remains short of a documented bid

Cornelia’s planned water, sewer and storm improvements for Circle Drive and Myrtle Street were still carrying a $1.335 million construction budget on the Water and Sewerage Authority’s July 28 agenda, which repeated that an application had been submitted in April 2025. The agenda also repeated a plan to advertise construction bids in the first quarter of 2026, but it did not say that advertising had occurred.

The project concerns core utility infrastructure at two Cornelia streets and is large enough to represent a significant public works commitment. Its stated construction budget rose from the $1.3 million shown in the initial proposal to $1.335 million in the later status reports, a difference of $35,000. Yet the agendas leave residents without a documented answer on whether the work has advanced from planning and application activity into a public bidding process.

The authority first listed the Circle Drive and Myrtle Street project with a $1.3 million budget and an April 2025 application deadline. By April 28, 2026, the authority’s agenda described the application as having been submitted in April 2025 and identified a $1.335 million construction budget. That update said bidding would be advertised during the first quarter of 2026; three months later, the July agenda repeated the same account rather than recording a bid notice, award or construction action.

The Water and Sewerage Authority is the public body placing the project and its status on meeting agendas. For residents around Circle Drive and Myrtle Street, the stated work involves the water, sewer and storm systems serving their area. The agendas present the project as an authority proposal and report an application submission and anticipated bidding, but they include no contractor, competing proposal, recorded public comment or stated position from affected residents.

What is documented is narrower than a construction start: the project was proposed, the authority later reported that an application had been submitted, and the construction budget was listed at $1.335 million. Bid advertising was described as a plan, not as a completed act. Neither the April nor July agenda confirms an advertisement, identifies bids or a contractor, records an award, or establishes when work might begin or finish.

The next meaningful public record would be a bid advertisement or a later authority action showing whether the Circle Drive and Myrtle Street project moved forward, changed or was completed. Until then, key questions remain unresolved: whether bids were actually sought, whether construction was awarded, and whether the $1.335 million figure remains the project’s operative budget. The initial proposal record also does not state the exact date of the meeting at which it appeared.