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Last updated on Wednesday, September 11, 2013
(BEDFORD) - Dave Conrad, a developer of Stonecrest Golf Course community, asked the Lawrence County Commissioners to accept the addition’s roads as county roads Tuesday morning
"We would like to turn the roads within the addition over to the county," Conrad says. We have established what needs to be done and are prepared to start the construction on Friday."
Conrad told the commissioner it is a "unique situation."
The developers plan to do some ditch work, top coating of roadways, construct a turn-around for school buses and emergency vehicles and snow plows, and to remove the center island.
But County Project Manager Bob Dillon has some reservation about the county accepting the roadways.
"A unique situation is an understatement," Dillon added. "What assurance does the county have that the homeowners' association will stay viable? Not only that, but they have their own waste water treatment plant and someone has to continue to operate that and if the county takes over the roadways the sewer lines run along the county right-of-ways. There are water quality issues because the storm water system drains into retention ponds used for irrigating the golf course and we will be using cinders and salt on the roadways. Then there are the street lights and who will pay those utility bills. Then there is the golf cart safety issues because if the county takes over the roadways the golf carts will be driven on county roads. There are just a lot of issues and frankly we need to legally look into those issues before deciding to take over those roads."
Conrad assured the commissioners that the homeowners' association would continue to address and handle those issues.
But Commissioner Chris May says he has received several calls from residents in the addition about concerns with the county taking over the roadways and told Conrad he needed to inform them of the plans.
"They are expecting a certain quality of life for what they pay and they will not have that when and if the county takes over the roads," May added. "They will be on equal ground as everyone else in the county."
County Attorney Dave Smith says these were not issues that the county could not overcome.
"It is the same thing we had to address when the county took over the roads in Briarwood Addition," Smith added.
Smith and the developers's attorney Greg Pittman will work on the details and come up with a plan to present at the next commissioners meeting in two weeks.
"We just don't want to rush into this and get into it and have an issue we can't handle," says Commission President Bill Spreen told Conrad. "We will look at this again at our next meeting. We just can't give you an answer now."
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