CH2M Hill is helping to create a new city in Georgia.
The privately held Denver engineering giant will provide a full range of services for Sandy Springs, Ga., an unincorporated community outside Atlanta that has a population of 90,000. Those services are to include everything from administration and human resources to parks and recreation and public works. However, the company will not provide police, fire, 911 service and municipal courts.
It’s a calculated risk. CH2M Hill, which posted revenue of $3.1 billion last year, will spend millions to get the city up and running before it has a signed contract. That’s because the community, which will elect its first city council next week, doesn’t officially become a city until Dec. 1, and the new council must officially hire CH2M Hill.
The contract, which starts Jan. 1, is valued at $29.7 million the first year and $24.7 million the second.
The company already is ramping up by hiring staff and putting systems in place, said Susan Mays, a CH2M Hill spokeswoman.
“You have to invest a little ahead of time in order to get your team up to speed and get people on board,” Mays said. “Normally, we have a signed contract when we start doing something. We’re approaching it like a true partnership, and you have to have faith in your partner.”
The community voted to incorporate as a city because residents weren’t satisfied with services they were receiving from Fulton County, where it is located, said Oliver Porter, interim city manager and chairman of the Governor’s Commission of Sandy Springs.
“If this is successful, it could open up an enormous market in municipal government for private industry,” Porter said. “In Georgia, there are 581 municipalities, and very few do contracts with private industry.”
CH2M Hill’s experience running water plants and wastewater systems through its wholly owned subsidiary Operations Management International gives it the appropriate skill set to operate a new city, Mays said.
“We’ve had clients say, ‘Can you do the rest of our public works?”‘ Mays said. “It’s the same or similar skill sets across public-works departments. The difference is water and wastewater require certifications. Others don’t.”
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-820-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
