The sediment issue in Tyrone continues to be rather muddy mess. A number

of meetings have taken place over the last few weeks to try to determine

what, if anything, in the way of help can be provided to those folks who

live in the Lake Pendleton subdivision on the eastern edge of Tyrone.

The problem, in case you have missed it, is that a whole lot of sand and

silt has filled a large portion of the homeowners association lake and they

have asked the mayor and Town Council for help.

The most recent public meeting took place Thursday, Oct. 14. It was a public

meeting in the context of the public was "allowed" to listen but

comments or questions were not allowed.

Clearly the mayor and council did not want anyone to interfere with the

smooth workings of government.

The intent of this gathering, evidently, was to find which guilty party

among the developers and outside (of the city limits) organization was at

fault and determine who was willing to pay for dredging Lake Pendleton.

Not once, by anyone, was the issue raised of Tyrone's responsibilities

for the problem faced by the Lake Pendleton Homeowners Association. Not once!

It is my opinion, and I have a great deal of on-site experience here, that

the majority of the sediment in Lake Pendleton came from the Handley Park

Ball field development.

This project took place four years ago with the land clearing and filling

for those ball fields being a project of the town of Tyrone.

On Jan. 18, 2001, I read a statement at a regular council meeting where

I said that in addition to filling wetlands, the town was also in violation

of the state Sediment and Erosion Control Act.

This statement was made after I had tried to work with town staff to correct

the problems with very little response.

Likewise, the council failed to act or even react and the sediment continued

to flow into Lake Pendleton.

Of course, the proper action when a serious violation of the Georgia Sediment

and Erosion Control Act occurs is to issue a stop-work order and when that

fails, a court citation.

Tyrone is one of many cities that have the legal responsibility to enforce

this law, but they would be in the somewhat awkward position of stopping

their own project and issuing an order to themselves to appear in magistrate's

court to answer the judge as to why they failed to follow the law and their

town's comprehensive plan. Confusing, isn't it?

So now the town is busy looking at a few local developers and at work outside

the town with the obvious intent of placing the blame for the problem in

the lake.

But we have essentially the same problem with the town again. If the developers

were doing such a bad job with sediment control so they are now blamed for

the sediment in the lake, and the town of Tyrone has the legal responsibility

of enforcing the Georgia law, why weren't there a whole series of stop-work

orders and citations against those developers?

Once again Tyrone officials have failed in their responsibilities and one

more time they are pointing their collective fingers at everyone but themselves.

But