Demorest approves $69,796 emergency pump payments after failures at two school-area lift stations

Demorest City Council unanimously approved $69,796.76 on May 12, 2025, for emergency replacement pumps at two lift stations serving the areas around Demorest Elementary School and South Habersham Middle School. The 3-0 vote authorized payment to MPE Services for work city officials said had already been performed after the older pumps failed.

The spending concerns two points in the city’s wastewater system, where lift stations move sewage onward through the network. Rather than a routine planned purchase, the council was asked to pay for replacements made under emergency conditions, making the vote both an immediate response to failed equipment and a nearly $70,000 commitment from city funds.

During a council workshop the same day, officials said the pumps were about 25 years old and stopped working in February 2025. That failure prompted emergency replacements at both locations before the formal payment vote. The meeting minutes also refer to an earlier emergency approval by email, but they do not give its date or describe who voted, what was authorized, or the terms of that action.

City officials presented the invoices as the cost of restoring failed equipment: $28,220.48 for the Demorest Elementary School-area lift station and $41,576.28 for the South Habersham Middle School-area station. MPE Services was identified as the vendor. The recorded council position was unified, with a motion and second followed by the unanimous approval; the minutes do not record a contrary council view or a separate public statement from the contractor.

The council authorization is complete: the signed regular-meeting minutes document the 3-0 approval of both invoices. The replacements were described in the workshop as emergency work already completed, but that description is not the same as a later record of payment, final inspection, or any additional maintenance. The published May materials do not establish when MPE Services was paid or whether either lift station needed further repairs after the new pumps were installed.

The next concrete public sign of follow-through would be a city financial record showing the invoices were paid, or later council materials reporting maintenance or additional spending at either station. Until then, the key unresolved questions are whether the emergency replacements closed out the problem and whether the city will need further work at the two school-area wastewater facilities.