Whitfield County Commission Chairman Mike Babb presides over a meeting at the administrative building downtown Dalton in this file photo.DALTON, Ga. – More than a dozen Whitfield County residents complained county officials had misled and lied to them over 15 years about what it would take to get their private road designated a public road.
In a called meeting Monday afternoon that lasted for more than an hour, Public Works Director DeWayne Hunt admitted the county made a “mistake,” but said his goal was to move forward with paving, not to rehash past grievances.
Four county commissioners attended the meeting but said little. County Commission Chairman Mike Babb, who has been involved in previous negotiations, said he thought it would be best if he didn’t attend.
The residents of Megan Drive, off Goodhope Road in northeastern Whitfield County, have made several attempts since 1994 to deed their privately maintained gravel road to the county and pay for paving to make it a county road. The road is less than a half-mile long, serving about 20 homeowners or plots of land.
Homeowners accuse the county of making promises it never kept, while the county says homeowners never followed through with deeding over all the land.
“We got cheated on so many times, we are fed up,” Jacqueline Southerland told Hunt.
“I feel they should have to pave the road themselves. They lied to us enough,” added Paul Tipton.
After one attempt to deed over the land in 1998, the county put in a waterline along the road in 2002 with the agreement the land would be deeded over.
In 2003, the county began working on the road “in good faith,” Hunt said. When negotiations fell through, the county pulled out its equipment.
Several attempts to resolve the issue in the years since then have been fruitless.
Residents demanded to know how permits were issued and the work begun before the county legally could do so. Hunt admitted that was against county policy, but said the zoning commission would have to answer that.
He said the cost for the entire project would be about $100,000, which could be divided among all property owners and paid over 10 years.
When the meeting adjourned, several residents said they would not deed over their land without being paid for it, while others said they wanted to move forward with paving the road.
County commissioners met immediately after the meeting for their regularly called meeting, but did not discuss the situation.
Contact staff writer Mariann Martin at mmartin@timesfreepress.com or 706-980-5824.