By TAMMY LLOYD CLABBY / http://www.ajc.com/In the 20 years since WSB radio news icon and Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Famer Aubrey Morris officially turned off his microphone, he has been anything but quiet.
Morris, 85, has channeled his energy and passion into historic preservation and environmental activism, primarily in north Fulton County.
Morris and his wife, Tera, live in a restored 1880s-era home built by his great-grandfather, Reubin Perkins. The couple moved the house to Milton, from the original 120-acre homestead that is now the developed Mansell Road area.
Morris was one of five influential north Fulton residents who led the 10-year fight against the county's proposed 500-acre landfill, known as Site 13. The project was halted by the Legislature in the late 1980s, an action that may have opened the door to development in north Fulton. The Crooked Creek golf community now sits on the Francis Road land.
In August, Morris called on a large network of Fulton residents, environmentalists and preservationists to launch an effort to save the 1830s Wagon Stop House, a place for travelers in the 19th century. It is to be preserved as part of a new Sandy Springs subdivision at Johnson Ferry and Glenridge Drive.
Morris is an occasional columnist for the Alpharetta-Roswell Review and News and is writing a book about his ancestors. "The Jett Journal: Life on the Wild Side" will chronicle the lives of other Morris family members who settled on what is now Jett's Ferry Road in Atlanta. The "river rats" in Morris' family, he says, lived a life of hunting, fishing and trapping on the Chattahoochee River.
Recently, Morris sat down to talk about the changes in north Fulton, its population, government and the future of growth in the area.
Morris, 85, has channeled his energy and passion into historic preservation and environmental activism, primarily in north Fulton County.
Morris and his wife, Tera, live in a restored 1880s-era home built by his great-grandfather, Reubin Perkins. The couple moved the house to Milton, from the original 120-acre homestead that is now the developed Mansell Road area.
Morris was one of five influential north Fulton residents who led the 10-year fight against the county's proposed 500-acre landfill, known as Site 13. The project was halted by the Legislature in the late 1980s, an action that may have opened the door to development in north Fulton. The Crooked Creek golf community now sits on the Francis Road land.
In August, Morris called on a large network of Fulton residents, environmentalists and preservationists to launch an effort to save the 1830s Wagon Stop House, a place for travelers in the 19th century. It is to be preserved as part of a new Sandy Springs subdivision at Johnson Ferry and Glenridge Drive.
Morris is an occasional columnist for the Alpharetta-Roswell Review and News and is writing a book about his ancestors. "The Jett Journal: Life on the Wild Side" will chronicle the lives of other Morris family members who settled on what is now Jett's Ferry Road in Atlanta. The "river rats" in Morris' family, he says, lived a life of hunting, fishing and trapping on the Chattahoochee River.
Recently, Morris sat down to talk about the changes in north Fulton, its population, government and the future of growth in the area.
Q: Are you pleased with the creation of the new north Fulton cities, such as Sandy Springs, Johns Creek and Milton?
A: Milton is good. I'm all for it. It's a wonderful manifestation of what democracy is all about. And it will lead to increased [historic] preservation. People came from other parts of the country and were tired of this area having been a rathole, for the dumping of tax dollars into Fulton County. That sounds anti-Atlanta. I don't mean it to be, I'm pro-Atlanta.
They're discussing their own affairs. They're practicing democracy. We had an election recently where we saw the ugly, dirty, business of politics, which is what governance is. We saw it come out in its full glory, and I like that, where people were attacking people. Let the chips fall where they may.
Q: Do you think more cities will be created in the northern area?
A: They are coming whether we need them or not. They will have to incorporate to survive. We can't leave local survival in the hands of government bureaucrats 20 miles away. They need to be in reach. People have decided they want to run their own affairs.
Q: Do you favor the re-creation of Milton County from what is now north Fulton?
A: Milton County should be re-created to regain a modicum of control of government. It's [now] too big, too cumbersome, too ungovernable. But I do favor regional planning for things such as water and transportation.
Q: What projects do you expect to work on in the new year?
A: I will continue to work on the book. And try to help bring about public awareness and acceptance of the individual citizen's responsibility for preserving our water and our other precious natural resources.
To preserve water, we've got to preserve trees. We've got to preserve wetlands. So I'm watching very carefully as these new cities come along, and the hunger for land by the developers continues. I'm watching to see the encroachment on wetlands. Watch that issue.
The whole future of the northern tier lies in our water supply and protecting our trees.
This has got to become an "in topic." I tell my children and grandchildren they must make it their in topic.
Editor's note: Tammy Lloyd Clabby is a veteran Atlanta journalist. She worked at WSB radio in the 1970s as a colleague of Aubrey Morris.
4 comments:
Is there a means to contact this gentleman, via email, postal service, or telephone that he/you would be willing to share?
Just show up at a meeting for the Roswell Historical Society...or pull out a phone book
IT doesn't matter what this man wants or anyone else wants in Milton because we are going to come in and build, build, build until we make a load of money and cash out. Then Milton will be left with a bunch of soul-less shopping centers and cluster neighborhoods.
Do you think you can really do anything different? Atlanta suburbians always sell out. They always will.
You keep thinking that...
We'll see you at the zoning hearing
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