Last week, Etowah Water and Sewer Authority agreed to Dawson County government’s plans to give back $1.8 million in bond money.

According to General Manager Brooke Anderson: “The authority and the county issued bonds in 2002 to install sewer lines ... and there’s about $1.8 million that has not been spent, and there’s no foreseeable reason it will be spent.”

Anderson said the county plans to “refund or give those bonds back in order to reduce their overall amount they owe. It’s a bond principal reduction.”

Because the bonds were in the authority’s name, it was required that they sign off on the agreement.

“The bonds are actually in our name, so we had to approve that action,” Anderson said.

Said County Manager Kevin Tanner: “Because of Etowah’s involvement, they had to approve of us moving forward.”

Tanner said giving back a portion of the bond money will “decrease the amount of money the county owes, therefore decreasing our annual liability on this debt.”

The total amount of the 2002 bonds was about $8.5 million, Tanner said.

The vote, which was 3-0 to approve, was held April 14 in a special called meeting. Board member Linda Townley was absent.