Less water causes eyesore on Pye Lake

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Pye Lake’s waters have receded from Wallace Bullard’s backyard as part of the temporary solution used by Fayetteville officials to avoid a dangerous situation.

In September, Georgia’s Safe Dams program declared that the Pye Lake dam needed expensive repairs that if unrepaired could endanger residents downstream. The city responded by drawing down the level of the lake to buy time until a permanent solution could be determined.

The solution chosen by the Fayetteville City Council will shrink the overall footprint of the lake by about half and repair the dam. Also, two culverts that go under Cornwallis Way — where several homes have flooded — will be increased in size to handle larger water flows.

City Engineer Don Easterbrook said the city is also creating “a small pond” that will bring water back to the backyards of Bullard and his neighbors. The city’s consulting engineers are still working on those plans, and once they are complete Easterbrook will show them to homeowners in the area of the lake who are currently affected by the lower level.

Once all is said and done, Bullard hopes he’ll be able to enjoy his lakefront view again. But he is doubtful at this point.

“They’re charging me $2.95 a month and you see my mud hole out here,” Bullard said, referring to the monthly fee Fayetteville is charging homeowners to handle stormwater runoff. “That’s ridiculous.”

City Manager Joe Morton told Bullard at last week’s City Council meeting that the city had no choice but to lower the lake’s level for safety reasons.

Bullard remembers the lake level being waist-deep when he moved to his Oliver Way home in 1990.

Sedimentation over the years has caused problems for Pye Lake, much of it coming from the construction of the new Fayette County High School, Bullard said. He argued that city officials mishandled the following dredging project to rectify the problem and more in the area has created more stormwater runoff.

“When you put down more asphalt and buildings, runoff happens,” Bullard said.

Bullard, 71 and retired from Ford Motor Company, has been a steward of the lake, venturing out to clean out cans, bottles and other debris that washes in. He has also enjoyed the lake’s beauty, and his grandson and friends have enjoyed catching catfish out of the back yard.

Bullard even ventured into the lake several years ago to rescue a duck who was having difficulty. He knew the duck was in trouble when it wouldn’t come to his yard to be fed.

Bullard thought the duck had been caught in a fishing line. He got a surprise instead.

“A snapping turtle had him by the leg,” Bullard said. “I picked up the turtle and had to hit him in the head with the back of my knife several times to turn the duck loose.

“I didn’t know a turtle could catch a duck.”

Bullard said he would be happy if the city could get restore some of the lake water to his area.

“I could live with that,” he said. “But I don’t know how they’re going to do it.”