North Georgia inn once connected to politicians faces condemnation

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A North Georgia motel that is at the center of a lawsuit involving Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Graves and state Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers is facing condemnation after its electricity was shut off last week amid financial troubles.

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Jeremy Redmon, jredmon@ajc.com The Oglethorpe Inn in Calhoun is at the heart of a lawsuit Bartow County Bank has filed against U.S. Rep. Tom Graves and state Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers.

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Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com Georgia Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers speaks about a bill in April 2010.

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Dan Henry, Chattanooga Times Free Press Tom Graves votes at the Ranger Community Center while being accompanied by his 10-year-old son John Graves in June 2010. Graves won the election.

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A top Calhoun official confirmed Monday the city will likely move in the coming days to shut down the Oglethorpe Inn, citing safety concerns over the lack of power there.

City Administrator Eddie Peterson said the inn lost power after its current owner, John Edens, fell behind in paying about $11,000 to North Georgia EMC for his utility bills.

Since the loss of power last week, local nonprofit agencies and churches have been scrambling to help find new homes for about 80 men, women and children who lived at the inn, said Peterson and others who have helped with the efforts. Some of them are impoverished and disabled, officials said, and some have called the inn their home for more than two years.

Edens, who said he took ownership of the inn from Rogers and Graves in November 2009, confirmed during a brief telephone conversation Monday that he was considering filing for bankruptcy. He still owes Calhoun $15,394 for unpaid 2009 real estate taxes, penalties and interest for the motel property, said Misty Caudle, the city's tax clerk. The city filed a lien against Edens for that amount in November. And that lien is still pending, Caudle said.

"It's sad what is going on with those people up there right now," Edens, in an apparent reference to his former tenants, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Edens asked that the AJC send him any additional questions by e-mail. He did not respond to those questions Monday.

Rogers said Tuesday he transferred ownership of the company that owns the motel -- Tich Hospitality -- to Edens two years ago.

"I have nothing to do with that," he said.

Graves did not respond to repeated requests for comment Monday.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit connected to the inn is still pending in court. The Bartow County Bank is suing Rogers and Graves, alleging the two owe the bank $2.2 million for a business loan that is now in default. Rogers and Graves, who took the loan out to buy and renovate the Oglethorpe Inn, have denied they owe the money because Edens now owns the inn and the company that originally took out the loan, Tich Hospitality.

An attorney for the Bartow County Bank said Rogers has invoked a provision of state law that allows for lawsuits to be put on hold during a state legislative session.

“The case will not proceed while the General Assembly is in session, but my motion for summary judgment is ready to be filed as soon as the stay expires,” Edward Hine, an attorney for the bank, wrote in an e-mail Monday.

On Tuesday, Rogers referred questions about invoking legislative privilege to his attorney.

The AJC reported in June on Edens' checkered past with money. Edens filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2004 and has been the target of numerous judgments and liens totaling more than $200,000 combined, including some from state and local tax collectors. Most of those liens have been released in recent years, court records show.

Peterson, the Calhoun city administrator, said the city will likely move to shut down the motel soon and then inspect it for any safety problems.

“We will probably have to start condemnation just to get the people out before someone really gets hurt with a fire or something like that,” Peterson said.

A spokeswoman for North Georgia EMC declined to say what Edens might owe the utility, citing customer privacy regulations. The spokeswoman, however, wrote in an e-mail Monday that the utility “provides ample notice and opportunity to make sufficient arrangements prior to disconnection of service.”

The United Way of Gordon County and Calhoun Affordable Housing Development Inc. have been helping relocate people from the inn.

John Burtz is among the inn’s former tenants who have been forced to find a new home. The unemployed chef lived there with his wife for about five months before the power went out last week. The power loss, he said, caused him and his stepson to lose about $300 worth of groceries they were keeping refrigerated in their rooms.

“It’s awful,” said Burtz, who is now staying with his family in a Motel 6 in Calhoun.

Staff writer Christopher Quinn contributed to this article.