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Monday, May 10, 2010

Milton Ends Four-Year Sewer Feud.


Courtesy By Maggie West and D. Jefferson Bean / Beacon Media.

Milton's finally settled a long-running fight with Fulton County over using sewers, but not before council members raised a stink about money flushed down the toilet.

At the root of the controversy, which landed in county court, were eight land parcels, over which both Milton and Fulton have for four years claimed the responsibility to provide sewerage -- or not.

On one side were residents and business owners who want to use the sewers that have long been there, or simply wanted an end to the four-year deadlock, during which they've been cut off from the facilities.

On the other: citizens voicing concerns ranging from loss of the city's political autonomy, to the lack of publicly available information on the project.

Under the agreement that governs service delivery between the county and the north Fulton cities, Fulton argued that tenants of those eight parcels should be able to access county sewers. Milton contended that they're in charge of that land and can choose not to operate the sewers.

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING SEWERS!

Milton resident Kim Horn neatly summed up several citizens' no-sewer arguments: "This is a very hot issue and it always has been. Two years ago, a 4 to 3 council vote approved the map [showing Milton control]. If Fulton County didn't agree with it, that shouldn't be our issue." Citing the matter of transparency, she continued: "If it's voted on tonight, it's going to be done in a vacuum."

Besides that, some Miltonites don't want to see the sewers at work, for fear of laying the groundwork for higher-density development.

Local business owner Dennis Potts, though, supported the proposed improvements. "I don't think anybody wants to see the sewer go into the rural areas, but it's wrong to have sewer not available to commercial properties that all along should have been sewered."

OR MAYBE WE DO …

Councilman Joe Longoria agreed. "Here we are with an individual citizen in the audience who's been dealing with this for four years," he said. "We need to give him a choice … It seems a little silly to me that we're even arguing about this. And that we're spending money, and that it's been going on for as long as it has."

A court-appointed mediator in March proposed splitting the difference. That went nowhere.

Milton Councilwoman Karen Thurman, said that unless the city attorney is willing to work for free, it'd be better for the city to give up the fight. "That money could've been spent on growth or anything else that we badly needed to spend it on. It's time to put this to bed and start working for our citizens."

Fulton County's 2006 map, showing county control of the parcels, was put on the table by Councilman Bill Lusk. After a heated discussion between the council members, the motion passed 4 to 3, ending Milton's long battle with the County.

Two days after the city council vote, the Fulton County commission unanimously accepted Milton's retreat.

Neither the county nor the city was able to immediately assign a dollar figure for their time in litigation, as the case was handled by in-house attorneys.

Relieved that the struggle had finally ended, Potts remarked, "They [Milton] want to stay a little horse town, a rural community. But there are enough citizens who know that we need a commercial tax base to survive as a city. Otherwise, they tax the residents. Businesses need sewers."

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness council, great to put this past us. Now get some real work done so you arent just wasting taxpayers money.

Anonymous said...

It's about time. Bill, Karen, Joe and others, thank you for your leadership in finally getting this done and behind us.

Anonymous said...

Finally! Can we now stop talking about this please!

Anonymous said...

Someone else pointed this out agile ago....why can't reporters get names spelled correctly?? Who is editing this stuff? It's Kim Horne. At least get one thing right. It's like when you lose 600 points on the SAT because you forgot to PRINT your name.

Anonymous said...

Kim Horne is editing this stuff and cannot spell her own name correctly. PRICELESS

Anonymous said...

I'll thank Karen Thurman when she pays her delinquent taxes on the properties she owns.

Has her unlawful loan company gone bankrupt in California yet? Wonder if she's using taxpayers' money to fly out to northern California to defend that illegal, unlicensed loan company?

The taxpayers will certainly pay for her business failure.

Anonymous said...

Milton has just taken a big dose of Extenze, for that certian part of the infrastructure...

Anonymous said...

Bill, Karen, and Joe's leadership, leads directly to the lining in their pockets. Longoria has no leadership, he is a sheep following his new herd.

- Bahh baahhh

Anonymous said...

Well you dont have to worry about Karen lining her pockets tis week because Daddy has taken her on another vacation trip.

Anonymous said...

Hey if they are truly lining their pockets, isn't that illegal?
Wouldn't Julie or Carol or Francine be all over that? Come on why arent you doing your job?

Anonymous said...

Must be nice to be Karen, dont have to worry about anything cause dad pays for everything and then she can line her pockets from the people she sucks up to.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure she's on vacation or is she in bankruptcy court?

Anonymous said...

Tim, don't worry about these bloggers and removing posts anymore. As soon as Obama gets his way, no one will be commenting on your blog or anyone elses, because their identies will be shown. Internet regulation is coming from the Annointed One. He only wants you to get "correct" information from him, after all, he didn't lie to America when he said he was going to fundamentally change the country, the problem is all his followers took him figuratively, when he meant it literally. Don't you know America is too stupid to figure out what is true information and what is not. Obama is going to take care of that for us now. Thank you Annointed One.

Anonymous said...

"Don't you know America is too stupid to figure out what is true information and what is not."

So stop defending Thurman on her delinquent taxes and illegal loan company. She's betting that you are stupid.