Gwinnett County has settled a long-running dispute with a Lawrenceville couple whose property was damaged and whose fish were washed away when Sugarloaf Parkway was extended near their home.
County commissioners voted last week to pay Gerry and Judy McManus $350,000 and to return some land they had taken as construction easements when Sugarloaf Parkway was extended.
County Commissioner John Heard said he found the settlement frustrating, but that he was glad the matter was coming to an end.
“There are things that stick in my craw, and this is certainly one of them,” he said before the vote.
Since the Sugarloaf extension began in 2009, the McManuses said, rain would send water all over their land. A county-built drainage pond only made it worse. The excess water killed trees and rosebushes, caused ruts and sinkholes and washed away the bass and koi they had in backyard ponds. Those ponds then filled with silt.
“They literally funneled it to us,” Gerry McManus said of the water. “They turbocharged it.”
Last year, the Georgia Supreme Court ordered the county to fix a laundry list of items to mitigate the effects of the runoff. Gwinnett had been slow to do some of the work, but Matt Reeves, and attorney who is representing the McManuses, said the repairs have now been “substantially completed.”
“It’s something to be thankful for here at the Thanksgiving season, that the McManuses and the county are on the same page,” he said. “They’re relieved to be finished with this.”
The McManuses sued in 2010, and Reeves praised county leaders for cleaning up an issue that began before they took office. The case had been nearing its trial date, and the county could have been on the hook for more had the case moved forward.
Reeves said the settlement, which has not yet been finalized, was negotiated from an appraisal the McManuses received about the loss of value to their home from the damage. They also received $103,000 from a previous agreement.
The couple, who said the damage made their house unsellable, had to dip into retirement savings to fund the case. They stopped taking vacations and didn’t make needed upgrades to their home. The lawsuit took over their lives, Gerry McManus said, and was the topic of conversation at every dinner.
“It has been one of the most exhausting, stressful issues I’ve ever dealt with,” Judy McManus said. “It’s been very hard.”
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