Mountain Park residents angry with council over lawsuit

By Ralph Ellis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mountain Park residents lashed out Wednesday night at the mayor and council over an environmental lawsuit that cost the little North Fulton town millions of dollars.

About 60 people attended the town hall meeting, with several accusing the council of not being honest about the lawsuit filed in 2005 over silt in the town’s two lakes. They said they were blindsided by the costs.

“We talked about truth and transparency, but all we’ve gotten is political spin,” said Frank Baia, a former council member. “We want to get a message to you. We don’t trust this operation any more. More transparency. No more executive sessions.”

The most passionate speakers urged the city not to appeal the verdict that came down last week.

“For five years we’ve chased a dream, maybe a pipe dream, maybe a Clean Water Act dream,” said George Menden, a lawyer. “We should not continue this folly.”

Mountain Park said several upstream developers allowed 40,000 cubic yards of silt to run off construction sites into the town lakes. The suit split the town, with angry voters pushing out several city council members. An ongoing question was whether the city should settle out of court.

When the case ended last week, a federal jury awarded the town of 550 people only $45,000 in damages to pay for a dredging job that might cost millions.

The jury decided the town didn’t deserve to be reimbursed for legal fees, though Mountain Park raised taxes and drained the reserve fund to pay legal bills expected to total $2 million.

Mayor Jim Still said the jury found two defendants, Chatham Holdings Inc. and Lakeside at Ansley subdivision, guilty of violating some parts of the Clean Water Act. The judge will later decide if those defendants should pay any damages or attorney fees.

An appeal didn’t interest most residents at the meeting, mainly because of the legal fees.

But Menden, a lawyer, said Judge Charles Pannell had shown impatience with the city in the case and probably wouldn’t grant any legal fees or rule for the city on an appeal.

Added Terry Wenham: “Let’s call it a day on the legal fees. Let’s focus on keeping the lakes as they are now and improving them.”

Stacey Jones, an engineer, noted that Mountain Park had not dredged the lakes in about 35 years. As part of its findings, the jury decided Mountain Park was responsible for about 80 percent of the silt problem in the lakes.

“We’re lucky to get what we got,” she said.

The city council will meet Thursday night with lawyers to discuss what to do next.