In the mid 1960s, Earl Strother, Sr., and myself built Lake Stephens. It was beautiful, all natural and all spring-fed clean water. The creeks that entered the lake on the north had high banks on both sides. Everything was all a person could want, which is why we all moved to Fayette County.

In the mid 1980s, Signa Development Co. came along; they were going to build a subdivision upstream from Lake Stephens. When Signa started work, Old Lake Edith's dam mysteriously broke, and they blocked Huiet Road without notification or authorization from the county. That lasted for over a year and the commissioners did nothing.

Our Lake Stephens started to fill up with their silt, and the beautiful creeks became muddy swamps. My neighbors and I attended Fayette Council [sic] meetings to protest and to ask action from the elected officials. This fell on deaf ears and Signa continued to have its way. We now have acres of mud and swamps where we had creeks before.

Now in 1999, the homeowners of Lake Stephens are again being raped [because of] Stonebriar West subdivision, the city of Fayetteville (Lake Stephens is outside of the city limits but the damage is being done inside the city limits).

This property was annexed through all kinds of dubious ways, which caused a recall of city council members, but it was too late, the damage had already been done to Lake Stephens. Property values and water quality drop all the way into Whitewater each day because of silt from Stonebriar development.

I asked Don Easterbrook, Fayetteville engineer, for help. He told us that Lake Stephens is outside Fayetteville city limits and they could offer no help. Stonebriar is inside the city, but Lake Stephens, which joins Stonebriar, is outside the city and is in Fayette County.

I then called David Barkoski, Fayette County engineer, for help, who said it is the city's responsibility.

I then called the state of Georgia to ask the Department of Erosion Control, Soil and Water Conservation for help, to make one or the other take care of this mess.

I was passed to Chip Catcliff to Terry Green to Carmin Shahliaee to Brent Dykes back to Terry Green again. They told me they had no authority or it was out of their department or I had the wrong agency.

This makes a complete circle of calls to all agencies. No one has the power to discipline developers, but someone has the power to give them the OK to start, and let people like us to be hurt and responsible to clean up their mess.

Signa shows the power of money in zoning, the land gets annexed, the developers don't respect property lines, they put debris on other peoples property, silt up our creeks, ruin our lakes, then hide behind government agencies.

When we go to city, county and state agencies, no one will help us. Why do we pay taxes and pay again in lack of roads, overcrowded schools and understaffed, overworked police and fire protection and still taxes go up?

We in Fayette County need to concern ourselves with our elected, selected or appointed officials or destroy ourselves.

Jerry Darby
Fayetteville

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