City Opens Bids for Dredging Davidson Lake

The city of Toccoa is moving forward on the dredging of Davidson Lake.

Monday, the city commission opened bids at its meeting for the work.

Alex Wiseman with Carter and Sloope, the engineering firm working with the city on the project, said that they have everything they need to move forward with the project once a bid is selected.

“All of the permits for the project are in hand,” said Wiseman. “There has been a good bit of interest in the project.”

The city received four bids, ranging from a low bid of just over $1 million to a high bid of well over $4 million.

City commissioners unanimously voted to remand the two lowest bids to staff for review. The second low bid was just under $1.3 million.

As far as funding the project, the city is considering using a loan from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, or GEFA, and then paying that back.

Wiseman said if the city starts the application process now, they can have the funding in place when the project starts.

According to Wiseman, that could all come together in May.

Davidson Lake is one of Toccoa’s three sources of water for its water system.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said the project needs to be done.

He said the reservoir is filling up with silt and needs to be dredged to gain capacity in the reservoir and remove pressure on the reservoir’s dam.