Hall County Public Works is trying once again find a solution to South Hall’s sewer woes.

Residents from the Reunion, Village at Deaton Creek and Sterling on the Lake subdivisions have been coming to Hall County Board of Commissioners meetings for more than a year in hopes of lowering their sewer rates.

The South Hall sewer customers currently pay a flat rate of $42 per month, which opponents say gives low volume users an unnecessary burden.

Hall County inherited the $42 rate when it purchased the private sewage system from developer John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods.

The Hall County Board of Commissioners revisited the issue Thursday. The commission voted down a new rate structure in favor of finding a better answer for the system’s financing issues.

Rearden said the next step will be to explore options other than sewer bills to pay a debt on the system.

Rearden said the debt is a big part of the cost and though money from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax cannot be used to pay for it, there may be other ways to take the burden off consumers.

The structure proposed Thursday would have paid for 34 percent of the system’s operating cost from a base rate of $13.96 per customer and 66 percent of the cost from customer usage charges of $4.66 per hundred cubic feet.

This rate structure would have reduced the rate for the average user, but would have increased rates for high volume users.

The main criticism is that outdoor watering is included with the sewer bill and could cause user’s bills to spike dramatically during summer months.

But Village at Deaton Creek resident Phyllis Mercer said though the rate structure, known as 34/66, is not perfect, she thinks it would be a step in the right direction.

"I think the 34/66 was a fair compromise based on the other options we’ve seen," said Mercer who has served as the spokeswoman for the South Hall residents.

The main issue behind the high rates is the low number of users that are paying to operate the system and pay off the debt.

With the housing market slump, the system did not see the projected growth that would have helped to spread costs among more residential users and new businesses.

"When we purchased that system it was still booming down in South Hall," Public Works Director Ken Rearden said.

Mercer said residents of the neighborhoods are upset there is still no solution to their high sewer bills.

"Our frustration is greater than just the rate," Mercer said. "It’s much more toward what the future will look like."

But Commission Chairman Tom Oliver said though Hall County hasn’t been able to fix the problem yet, it is taking the wishes of the people to heart.

"There’s no way we’re going to be able to make Sterling, Reunion and everybody happy," Oliver said. "But we have the plant. If Wieland still had the plant you wouldn’t have any input; you wouldn’t have these discussions."