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Staff photo - Kathryn L. Babb
The view from the top: The Appalachians provide an ‘absolutely stunning, breathtaking view,’ says the real estate broker marketing the land
Sawnee Mountain, Pool’s Mill land for sale
Large tracts slated for development
By Lindsey Kelly
Staff writer
In the growth boom that is rapidly overtaking the
county’s available land, two of the county’s historic
landmarks are now being offered up as backdrops for
more development.
Within the last two months, large tracts around the
old Pool’s Mill Bridge and across the summit and sides
of Sawnee Mountain have hit the real estate market.
Constructed in 1901, the original Pool’s Mill Bridge,
which crosses Settendown Creek off Ga. 369 in northern
Forsyth, is one of 15 remaining covered bridges in the
state. It is also the county’s only listing on the National
Landfill bill back in committee
By Tom McLaughlin
Staff writer
A bill proposed by state Represen
tative Bill Barnett, which could pre
vent the Fulton County Commission
from locating a landfill on the Forsyth
County line, cleared another hurdle
Friday when it passed the state
senate.
The bill, however, came away from
the senate with a population cap of
350,000. This means that only two
Georgia counties Fulton and De
kalb —would be affected. In the house
version, the 350,000 cap was removed
and the bill passed in a form which
would have imposed landfill restric
tions statewide.
Through the bill, Barnett seeks to
prohibit one county from installing a
landfill within a half-mile of another
county’s border. Barnett, the District
10 Representative with a Forsyth
County constituency, introduced the
legislation this year after the Fulton
County Commission asked the state
Environmental Protection Division of
the Department of Natural Resources
to approve a landfill bordering For
syth County along Francis Road.
Barnett said unless one of the two
houses amended its bill, both versions
will end up next in a conference com
mittee made up of representatives of
both houses to iron out the differ
ences.
“The senate’s position is to imple
ment the 350,000 cap and ours is to go
statewide,” Barnett said. “It could
come out somewhere between 350,000
Coming Wednesday
Want to see what’s happening in For
syth County, the progress made in the past
year and the reason so many people are
looking at the county as the perfect place
to live? Then read the annual Progress
edition of the Forsyth County News, com
ing Wednesday, March 2, and available
by subscription, in newsstands or at the
Forsyth County News office on Dahlon
ega Street, Cumming.
(aimers approve Waffle House rezoning SA
Forsvth CountvNeu s V|
and zero or we could let it apply to two
counties for this year and come back
another year and try to change it.”
Barnett said once the bill gets out of
conference committee the amended
version must then re-pass in both
houses before going to the governor.
He said he had, “no reason to believe”
the governor would not sign the mea
sure into law.
The representative said the popula
tion cap is the only difference between
the two houses. The house voted Fri
day not to change its position and the
senate is expected to do the same. If
this is the case, the bill would go to the
committee early next week. Barnett
said even at this late date, an amend
ed version should make it out of con
ference committee before the end of
the session, which has six days left.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1988-CUMMING, GA. 30130-84 PAGES 3 SECTIONS
Register of Historic Places.
The original bridge collapsed in August, leaving a
portion of the structure sagging into the creek. But it
has since been restored by the county, with finishing
touches of the reconstruction work having been com
pleted last month. $
Situated just north of Cumming, Sawnee Mountain is
named for Chief Sawnee, leader of a small tribe of Cher
okee Indians who lived in the Kelly Mill area until they
were rounded up by the federal government and sent on
the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma in 1838. Gold mining also
once took place on the mountain.
Please see MOUNTAIN, page 3A
‘Since a bill went through both
houses with an affirmative vote it is
simply a matter of agreement. I
think we’ll have enough time to get it
out of committee. I've seen bills
on the last day of the session go
through.’
Rep. Bill Barnett
“Since a bill went through both
houses with an affirmative vote it is
simply a matter of agreement,” he
said. “I think we’ll have enough time
to get it out of committee. I’ve seen
bills on the last day of the session go
through.”
Barnett said he and North Fulton
Representative Luther Colbert hope
to be chosen to the conference com
mittee from the house of representa
tives. Colbert sponsored the same bill
last year and is Barnett’s co-sponsor
this year.
“Sallie Newbill and Nathan Deal
will hopefully be on it from the senate.
But that is conjecture, no one has been
appointed yet,” Barnett said.
A vote doesn’t have to be unanimous
Please see LANDFILL, page 2A
PROGRESSI
rvrwi
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PROGRESS!
Ipiprog r E SSSBI
By Lindsey Kelly
Staff writer »
An apparent misunderstanding with the owners of
property around the old Pool’s Mill Bridge has county
officials facing the prospect of land they’ve anticipated
being donated for a park being sold right out from under
their plans.
Scott Hartney, one of the principal owners of the
bridge property, said Friday from his office in Chicago
that the land has been put up for sale because the county
has failed, in the past year and a half, to work out the
details of an agreement he says never got beyond the
negotiation stages. This is despite all the county’s publi
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Start photo Kathryn L. Babb
Ga. 400 is not an interstate and is therefore not covered by the new law
It’ll still be double nickels for Ga. 400
By Tom McLaughlin
Staff writer
Forsyth County residents tuning up their car en
gines for a high speed run to Atlanta are going to be
sorely disappointed: Ga. 400 will not be affected by a
new law changing the speed limit on some highways to
65 mph.
“It is not an interstate, and interstates were the only
thing the law dealt with,” said Jerry Stargel, a public
affairs director for the Atlanta Office of the state De
partment of Transportation.
Stargel said the new law, which was signed by Gov.
Joe Frank Harris Feb. 19, presently affects roughly
800 miles of the 940 miles eligible for change.
“In areas where there is ongoing construction there
won’t be any changes made until the construction is
Vulcan wants permit for quarry
IBPROG R E SS■!
By Kathey Pruitt
Staff wrilf
Vulcan Materials Corp., the mining
company that has tried since 1984 to
place a granite quarry in Forsyth and
Cherokee counties, has renewed ef
forts for a permit to begin operations
on a 294-acre site in Cherokee County.
Members of the Cherokee County
Zoning Appeals Board postponed ac
tion on the permit request earlier this
month. The appeals board will meet
again Thursday to decide the issue.
Forsyth County Commission Chair
man Charles Welch said Friday after
noon that no permit requests or rezon
County park plans were never finalized
complete,” he said.
There are 1,220 total miles of interstate highway in
the state. Those affected in areas well away from ur
ban centers include: 1-75, 1-85, 1-20, 1-59 and 1-24 in
northwest Georgia.
Stargel said state roads such as Ga. 400 never had
speed limits exceeding 55.
“Even before the 55 mile per hour speed limit was
passed, nothing but the interstates were 65,” he said.
The speed limits were changed during the nation
wide energy crisis in the early 70s to help conserve
limited petroleum supplies. Stargel said prior to that
time the speed limits were 70 mph on the rural
interstates.
Another proposed change along Ga. 400 that has
Please see SPEED, page 2A
ing applications by Vulcan have been
filed in Forsyth County.
Though the property in Cherokee
County is zoned agricultural, it may
be mined without undergoing rezon
ing if appeals board members grant a
permit authorizing the quarry.
The 294-acre site is part of several
hundred acres Vulcan owns along Ga.
369 in northwest Forsyth and north
east Cherokee counties near the inter
section of Lower Creighton Road. The
company attempted to obtain a min
ing permit, or zoning variance, for an
88-acre parcel in the same area in 1984
but withdrew the request after a
storm of protests from residents in
cized plans for an elaborate park complete with nature
trails and camp sites.
The land in question went on the market in January,
included as part of the 152-acre tract Hartney and his
partners are selling for a $1.5 million price tag. The
land surrounds both the old Pool’s Mill Road and the
new road the Department of Transportation is current
ly finishing, including a new bridge to route traffic off
the old covered bridge.
Hartney said he wrote county administrator Ralph
Roberts in November to inform the county of his plans
to sell the land and questioned whether the county still
Please see PARK, page 2A
both counties.
On Feb. 8, a second request was
heard by the three-member Cherokee
County zoning appeals board, but
members tabled the issue to examine
Vulcan mines in Norcross and Kenne
saw, according to Cherokee Count}’
Commissioner Gene Hobgood.
Fourteen residents opposed to the
quarry were present at the appeals
board meeting, a marked decrease
from the 200 or so who turned out to
protest the first fequest.
Residents along the periphery of the
Vulcan-owned property, a tract they
Please see QUARRY, page 3A
3S CENTS