At a special called meeting on Monday January 23, 2023, the Greene County Commission approved a 99-year lease agreement with the Greene County Water and Sewer Authority, for the Greenetrack lagoon, which is jointly owned by the Commission and Greenetrack.

The Greene County Water and Sewer Authority has received a $1.3 million grant from ADEM to repair and refurbish the lagoon with an adjoining wetland to absorb the excess water generated by the lagoon. The grant conditions require that the Sewer Authority have long term ownership or control of the land to receive the infrastructure grant funding.

This required the Commission and Greenetrack, as owners of the lagoon to grant the Authority a 99-year lease to control and operate the lagoon and adjoining land.

Vincent Atkins, Director of the Greene County Water and Sewer Authority and Josh Bonner, engineer for the project from Sentell Engineering in Tuscaloosa, were available to answer questions from the Commission on the lease agreement. Mark Parnell, Commission Legal Counsel, attending by phone, indicated that he had reviewed the agreement and that any changes to it would be minor, in the final negotiations with ADEM. He informed the Commission that a 99-year lease was comparable to a deed, in terms of ownership for a long period of time.

The four commissioners present at the meeting approved the agreement as presented.

At the end of the meeting, Atkins stated in answer to this reporter’s questions, that “The Greenetrack lagoon currently serves 19 business and residential customers, along the corridor between Highway 11 and the Interstate 20 and 59, including Greenetrack itself. The refurbished lagoon will serve those 19 customers and any others that develop along the corridor.”

The engineer pointed out that any extensions of the sewage system would require additional grant or internal funding.