Members of

Safeguard South Metro and those who have been fighting for over a year

to stop the Williams Power Company from building a power plant are celebrating.

The power company

formally withdrew its request to rezone 162.59 acres on Peters Road, part

of a larger parcel that extends into Union City, for a power plant.

Dillard &

Gallaway, LLC, acting on behalf of the Williams Company's Fulton Energy

Center, LLC, informed the Fulton County Department of Environmental Community

Development via letter June 11 of their intention. The company had been

deferring the rezoning request from month to month.

Early last

year when word first became public that the Company intended to build

a power plant in their neighborhood, individuals from South Fulton and

North Fayette County began organizing and spreading the word. They contacted

elected officials, involved local businesses and banded together to form

Safeguard South Metro, Inc.

Signs popped

up in front of homes and businesses saying "NO Power Plant,"

a Web site was constructed, meetings were held and information was dispersed.

Fayette County

Commissioner Greg Dunn was the first on the Fayette County side to become

engaged. After attending informational meetings held by Williams, conducting

extensive research and talking with citizens affected by the plant throughout

both counties, he began a campaign to convince the Williams Company to

build elsewhere.

Regarding the

zoning withdrawal, Dunn stated, "This is a great victory for the

citizens; they banded together on both sides of the Fayette/Fulton border

and have proved that the people still have the ability to guide policy

decisions of their government. I am grateful to all of them for allowing

me to work at their side to ensure that our outstanding quality of life

will be preserved."

He continued,

"The withdrawal means that Fayette and Fulton County citizens will

no longer have to spend much of their time worrying about the potential

health threats to their families and/or the loss of property values on

their homes."

Bob Crutchfield,

President and CEO of Christian City, became involved once he discovered

the close proximity the proposed plant would have to Christian City, a

thriving senior retirement community. Crutchfield contacted Richard Ficken,

Group Director for Power Development, upon hearing the rezoning was being

pulled and was told, "the matter was not on the table for consideration"

and that "at this time, they have no immediate plans to move forward

on this matter." Ficken further assured Crutchfield that he would

be contacted in advance if anything changed in this regard.

He continued,

"Christian City's position remains the same. We oppose the plant

based on health risks and will continue to be so until some verifiable

scientific evidence can be produced that addresses our health concerns.

To date, nothing has been developed to refute our contention that the

existence of the plant contiguous to our facilities would negatively affect

the morbidity rates for our residents and increase risks for respiratory

problems for older residents as well as children in the home for children

and the facility for medically fragile children in the Southwest Christian

Hospice."

Christian City

is in the process of organizing two candidate forums, one for the primary

and one for the general election, and one of the issues will be the candidate's

position on the power plant if it should be resurrected.

According to

Marian Eisenberg, acting assistant director in the Fulton County Department

of Environment & Community Development, if the Williams Company chooses

to pursue the rezoning of the property in the future, it would need to

begin the entire process over. Signs would be posted, new permits applied

for and legal notices would need to be advertised.

After an extended

period in which the power plant issue had seemed to disappear, it resurfaced

last week. Initially the resurfacing of the rezoning on the agenda after

an extended quiet period caused a flurry of activity.

"I think

we're all very tired of having to constantly worry about our community

under attack by this Oklahoma Power Company," said James Harris,

who serves on the Board of Safeguard South Metro. "I wish they'd

just leave us alone and go away."

"It's

a relief to know they're not going to be there," said Monica Peart.

"Whenever I hear an alert regarding our air quality it reminds me

of how much worse it could be if the power plant were here. It's good

to have the immediate threat gone."