Homeowner gets runaround

Homeowner

gets runaround from officials on siltation problem

In the mid 1960s,

Earl Strother, Sr., and myself built Lake Stephens. It

was beautiful, all natural and all spring-fed clean

water. The creeks that entered the lake on the north had

high banks on both sides. Everything was all a person

could want, which is why we all moved to Fayette County.

In the mid

1980s, Signa Development Co. came along; they were going

to build a subdivision upstream from Lake Stephens. When

Signa started work, Old Lake Edith's dam mysteriously

broke, and they blocked Huiet Road without notification

or authorization from the county. That lasted for over a

year and the commissioners did nothing.

Our Lake

Stephens started to fill up with their silt, and the

beautiful creeks became muddy swamps. My neighbors and I

attended Fayette Council [sic] meetings to protest and to

ask action from the elected officials. This fell on deaf

ears and Signa continued to have its way. We now have

acres of mud and swamps where we had creeks before.

Now in

1999, the homeowners of Lake Stephens are again being

raped [because of] Stonebriar West subdivision, the city

of Fayetteville (Lake Stephens is outside of the city

limits but the damage is being done inside the city

limits).

This

property was annexed through all kinds of dubious ways,

which caused a recall of city council members, but it was

too late, the damage had already been done to Lake

Stephens. Property values and water quality drop all the

way into Whitewater each day because of silt from

Stonebriar development.

I asked Don

Easterbrook, Fayetteville engineer, for help. He told us

that Lake Stephens is outside Fayetteville city limits

and they could offer no help. Stonebriar is inside the

city, but Lake Stephens, which joins Stonebriar, is

outside the city and is in Fayette County.

I then

called David Barkoski, Fayette County engineer, for help,

who said it is the city's responsibility.

I then

called the state of Georgia to ask the Department of

Erosion Control, Soil and Water Conservation for help, to

make one or the other take care of this mess.

I was

passed to Chip Catcliff to Terry Green to Carmin

Shahliaee to Brent Dykes back to Terry Green again. They

told me they had no authority or it was out of their

department or I had the wrong agency.

This makes

a complete circle of calls to all agencies. No one has

the power to discipline developers, but someone has the

power to give them the OK to start, and let people like

us to be hurt and responsible to clean up their mess.

Signa shows

the power of money in zoning, the land gets annexed, the

developers don't respect property lines, they put debris

on other peoples property, silt up our creeks, ruin our

lakes, then hide behind government agencies.

When we go

to city, county and state agencies, no one will help us.

Why do we pay taxes and pay again in lack of roads,

overcrowded schools and understaffed, overworked police

and fire protection and still taxes go up?

We in

Fayette County need to concern ourselves with our

elected, selected or appointed officials or destroy

ourselves.

Jerry

Darby

Fayetteville

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