Nick Ware has lived in the Catoosa County area his whole life, regularly hiking and fishing at South Chickamauga Creek by Swanson Mill in Graysville. So when he heard there was a meeting to discuss a possible conservation effort to buy and protect the land, he wanted to know more.
Ware left that meeting with more questions than answers, and more confused than when he arrived, he said.
With the historic mill site for sale, the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway Alliance, the Atlanta chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the county held a joint community meeting to gather questions and concerns about the land and the potential for Catoosa County to own the property.
Much of the confusion revolved around whether or not the county would be purchasing the 16 acres of land and the house on the property, estimated to cost about $1 million, and if so, whether taxpayers would be responsible for upkeep.
Among the roughly 30 people who filled the Graysville Voting Precinct for the Aug. 19 meeting was Chattanooga resident Sandra Kurtz of the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway Alliance. She said Catoosa residents' concerns about who will pay for maintenance costs are valid, but since the mill is on the creek, whose watershed stretches from Ringgold up into Chattanooga, the conservation aspect is the most pressing issue.
Members from the Nature Conservancy felt the same way. The conservancy has offered to help the South Chick Creek conservation group find and secure grants and funding to purchase the property, said Sara Gottlieb, the Atlanta chapter's director of freshwater science and strategy.
However, Gottlieb noted that the conservancy aims to merely act as a facilitating entity, with no plans to own the property, instead, requiring either a public or private organization to own the property before helping in next steps. Hence local residents' questions over the county's involvement and obligations.
Some benefits to revitalizing the land near the dam could be tourism to the area, said panelist Joseph Davidson, a transportation planner for the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission. Ware countered that similar to the way National Parks have experienced greater deterioration because of tourism, that could happen here.
"If the county is going to spend the money to protect the land, it should be mindful of present and future generations use," said Ware.
The conservancy and alliance hope to host another meeting later this year with more concrete answers to questions raised last week.
Email Sabrina Bodon at sbodon@timesfreepress.com.