Friday, September 7,
2001
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Opponents hope cemetery problem will bury power plant proposal By DAVE
HAMRICK
Opponents of a proposed power plant on the South Fulton-north Fayette border are hoping that discovery of strict covenants concerning an old family cemetery on the plant site will be "the final nail in the coffin" of the proposal. But officials for Williams Company, which hopes to build the plant, say they should be able to preserve the cemetery and still build the plant. (See related story). "It is a huge problem for them," said Fayette County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn. A large network of area residents has banded together to fight the power plant proposal, and the Williams Company has delayed its rezoning requests in Fulton County and Union City to provide more time to allay the residents' fears. The company is asking for industrial zoning for 288 acres on Peters Road to allow a 1,230-megawatt, gas-driven plant. Company officials have invited Dunn and other officials to fly to Maine and view an existing Williams Company plant to help in that regard, Dunn said. Dunn wrote to the company Aug. 20 to say that its plan to move the Peters family cemetery from the plant site would not be legal. "The Peters cemetery was established by the Peters family in a way which prohibits you, or anyone else, from removing graves from the Peters cemetery," he wrote. In its environmental impact report, the company mentions the cemetery but treats it as a minor problem. "The applicant intends to relocate this cemetery to a more suitable location," says the report. The cemetery, which has about a dozen graves, is on a half acre within the footprint of the proposed plant. It holds most of the family of George Peters, one of five sons of Kelly and Sarah Peters, who moved to the site in 1835. Sarah Peters also is buried in the cemetery, but Kelly Peters died during a trip to Texas and is buried there, according to "The History of Fayette County," published by the Fayette County Historical Society. Dunn said the Peters family conveyed the cemetery to the ordinary of Campbell County (former name of South Fulton) in 1924, and attached a covenant that runs with the land, restricting its use to a cemetery and directing the ordinary, as trustee of the tract, "to see that cemetery is not disturbed in any way and remains intact, and the two roads remain open so that no person can ever disturb the remains of the persons who sleep here, and who may sleep here in the future." The family felt so strongly about its desire that the cemetery never be disturbed, Dunn told The Citizen Tuesday, that they dug the graves into stone and covered them with concrete. When Campbell County became part of Fulton County, the property was conveyed to Fulton, and later to Michael Scharko, owner of the proposed power plant site. In conveying the land to Scharko, the county included the original covenant in the deed, Dunn said. Since writing the letter, Dunn said he has met with four great-great grandchildren of Sarah Peters. There are no known descendants of George, because he insisted his children not marry, according to the history book. One defied him and did, but was disinherited. "They've [Peters descendants] been approached by Williams" in attempts to convince them to allow the cemetery to be moved, said Dunn, but he added, "I don't think the descendants could break the covenants even if they wanted to." And they don't, he added. "They want the covenants ... to stay in place," he said. Further, Dunn said, one of the graves holds a Civil War veteran, Hosea "Horsey" Peters, 27th Georgia Infantry, Bethsaida Rifle Guard, Company E, and the Old Campbell County Historical Society is interested in preserving that grave. The Sons of Confederate Veterans organization also is interested in making sure that grave in particular is not moved, Dunn said. With wetlands covering much of the 288-acre property for the proposed power plant, Dunn said he doesn't think the Williams Company will be able to simply move the 30-acre plant site to another part of the property. He said he had not received a reply to his letter as of Tuesday.
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