City Council member proposes fund for businesses that lost money during water main breaks

ATLANTA — During Monday’s Atlanta City Council meeting, Council Member Matt Westmoreland introduced a measure to create a multimillion-dollar funds transfer to Invest Atlanta to help Atlantans recoup from some of the losses caused by the water main break crisis this past week.

According to the council’s ordinance seeking approval for the funding, $5 million would be transferred to Invest Atlanta as a recovery fund for small businesses adversely impacted by the disruption of water service for nearly a week, if passed.

According to a council spokesperson, the measure will go before two committees starting next week before a full vote could be held to approve it.

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The ordinance would allow the city’s Chief Financial Officer to make changes to the budget, operating transfers and other funding needs in order to facilitate the recovery effort.

“Recent water main breaks in Atlanta have caused significant disruptions, forcing numerous local businesses to close during peak business periods, particularly over a weekend,” the ordinance reads. “These disruptions have resulted in financial losses for these businesses, many of which are small, locally owned establishments that are vital to the community’s economic health and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Due to the series of water main breaks having “negatively impacted the livelihoods of employees and the overall economic stability of the affected areas,” Atlanta officials will provide financial assistance to those affected so they can recover lost revenue, employee wages and other related expenses tied to the water outage and closures.

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