Opponents of

a proposed power plant on the South Fulton-north Fayette border are hoping

that discovery of strict covenants concerning an old family cemetery on

the plant site will be "the final nail in the coffin" of the

proposal.

But officials

for Williams Company, which hopes to build the plant, say they should

be able to preserve the cemetery and still build the plant. (See related

story).

"It is

a huge problem for them," said Fayette County Commission Chairman

Greg Dunn.

A large network

of area residents has banded together to fight the power plant proposal,

and the Williams Company has delayed its rezoning requests in Fulton County

and Union City to provide more time to allay the residents' fears. The

company is asking for industrial zoning for 288 acres on Peters Road to

allow a 1,230-megawatt, gas-driven plant.

Company officials

have invited Dunn and other officials to fly to Maine and view an existing

Williams Company plant to help in that regard, Dunn said.

Dunn wrote

to the company Aug. 20 to say that its plan to move the Peters family

cemetery from the plant site would not be legal.

"The Peters

cemetery was established by the Peters family in a way which prohibits

you, or anyone else, from removing graves from the Peters cemetery,"

he wrote.

In its environmental

impact report, the company mentions the cemetery but treats it as a minor

problem. "The applicant intends to relocate this cemetery to a more

suitable location," says the report.

The cemetery,

which has about a dozen graves, is on a half acre within the footprint

of the proposed plant. It holds most of the family of George Peters, one

of five sons of Kelly and Sarah Peters, who moved to the site in 1835.

Sarah Peters also is buried in the cemetery, but Kelly Peters died during

a trip to Texas and is buried there, according to "The History of

Fayette County," published by the Fayette County Historical Society.

Dunn said the

Peters family conveyed the cemetery to the ordinary of Campbell County

(former name of South Fulton) in 1924, and attached a covenant that runs

with the land, restricting its use to a cemetery and directing the ordinary,

as trustee of the tract, "to see that cemetery is not disturbed in

any way and remains intact, and the two roads remain open so that no person

can ever disturb the remains of the persons who sleep here, and who may

sleep here in the future."

The family

felt so strongly about its desire that the cemetery never be disturbed,

Dunn told The Citizen Tuesday, that they dug the graves into stone and

covered them with concrete.

When Campbell

County became part of Fulton County, the property was conveyed to Fulton,

and later to Michael Scharko, owner of the proposed power plant site.

In conveying the land to Scharko, the county included the original covenant

in the deed, Dunn said.

Since writing

the letter, Dunn said he has met with four great-great grandchildren of

Sarah Peters. There are no known descendants of George, because he insisted

his children not marry, according to the history book. One defied him

and did, but was disinherited.

"They've

[Peters descendants] been approached by Williams" in attempts to

convince them to allow the cemetery to be moved, said Dunn, but he added,

"I don't think the descendants could break the covenants even if

they wanted to."

And they don't,

he added. "They want the covenants ... to stay in place," he

said.

Further, Dunn

said, one of the graves holds a Civil War veteran, Hosea "Horsey"

Peters, 27th Georgia Infantry, Bethsaida Rifle Guard, Company E, and the

Old Campbell County Historical Society is interested in preserving that

grave. The Sons of Confederate Veterans organization also is interested

in making sure that grave in particular is not moved, Dunn said.

With wetlands

covering much of the 288-acre property for the proposed power plant, Dunn

said he doesn't think the Williams Company will be able to simply move

the 30-acre plant site to another part of the property.

He said he

had not received a reply to his letter as of Tuesday.

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