The Losing Georgia: Interactive Tour has been updated with 2 new historical places and maps. Featured maps are excerpts from the U.S. War Department’s illustration of Sherman’s Army during the Civil War, however the maps show no movements in Douglas County, but does help locate original homesteads and grist mills. Users of the Interactive Tour need to refresh the Network Link file and new users can download the KMZ file or head over to the overview page if unfamiliar with the Interactive Tour.

Below is a list of additions and updates to the tour.

Historical Places

• Flint Hill Methodist Church
• Goode Hunt Grocery Store

Overlays

• 1877 - Atlanta Campaign
• 1895 - Atlanta Campaign

Losing Georgia has been known for using products, like Google Earth and Google Maps, to broaden research and demonstrate the effects of development in Douglas County. Recently a new online mapping service has combined all the major mapping resources onto one great website.

The project is called Flash Earth and takes aerial images from Google, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo!, Ask.com, OpenLayers, and NASA Terra. The interface is very simple, allowing users to adsorb the content without unwanted features being in the way. One downside to Flash Earth is that a roadway overly is not available (with the exception of Microsoft VE labels layer), which makes becoming lost easier.

From a research perspective, the aerial images that are available provide how Douglas County has developed in the past few years. For example when viewing the Microsoft VE layer, ¾ of Douglas County is in black and white from a about four years ago, but when switching to the Yahoo! or Ask.com layer, the imagery is updated within the last year and a half, showing a transition of growth that has affected county.

The term ‘One Douglas’ may sound familiar to some Douglas County residents. Recently it was mentioned in the January issue of Chapel Hill News & Views under the Chairman’s Corner section, briefly outlining the future prospects of what the County intends to achieve in 2007. Mentioned in the article was creating a new SPLOST by September, better communication with all communities, rework the jail situation and unify Douglas County.

In a recent open records request issued by Losing Georgia, one of the documents that was attained included the Douglas County Board of Commissioner’s Goals for 2007, a.k.a. the ‘One Douglas’ plan. The document, a 52 page PowerPoint presentation, contains an in-depth look at what the Board of Commissioner’s expect to complete this year, taking on the looks of an action plan to solve problems with an open mind.

At the core of the plan are five distinct values or themes that continually repeat, sounding off marching orders to awe the public: PR Campaigns, reestablish SPLOST, Accountability, Communication, Public Goods.

(more…)

The year of 2007 will be a frantic year for Douglas County as major transportation projects spawn, a push for SPLOST is to return, and the construction of more public goods as growth continues. Any resident who visits one of Douglas County’s public libraries has a chance to look over the Five Year Comprehensive Improvement Program for 2006-2010 – a packet proposing the outline of funding public goods and a rudimentary County budget for five years, released at the end of each year.

Although most of the information concerns government operational upgrades (and can be cumbersome to read), some of the listed projects are unique considering public goods are paid for by tax dollars. A few of the more pertinent projects are logical, like a new E-911 center, improvements to traffic corridors, and upgrading the parks system, since there is a greater need/demand for these items.

Also on the list was the proposal for a new Douglas County Jail, an issue that has been debated ever since the project was attached to the 2006 SPLOST Referendum, which was voted in disapproval by the public last year due to the jail receiving a majority of funds before any other project. When the jail was on the ballot, costs were budgeted at $87,262,200, however according to the comprehensive plan estimated costs have now reached $99 million.

Understanding the funding for this project is confusing since in the first few pages of the plan it is stated that “Some of the improvements anticipate that the voters will approve another Special Local Option Sales Tax in 2007 in order to finance a new jail, library and animal shelter along with the needs that will be identified in the future.” However when the jail project is listed further in the plan, funding is marked as being from the General Fund – money collected from regular taxes.

Another interesting project is that the Parks and Recreations Department has budgeted to construct a $250,000 quarter midget racetrack, as for the location it is not specified. Most Douglas County residents can remember the 7 Flags dirt track that was off of Warren Road, a very popular place that met its demise when the Brookmont subdivision tore it down. Over the course of the five year plan, 2007 is proposed as the largest spending venture with $233,313,19. There was no mention of impact fees or any other fund raising agendas besides the hopeful approval of a future SPLOST.

It was in 1998 when the focus on community began to shift toward retail enlightenment, the largest mall in Georgia would be built in Douglas County providing hundreds of jobs and thousands of tax dollars, but the emergence of a grandiose retail center would change almost everything. What was 125 acres of natural wetland along a vacant four lane road, Douglas Boulevard, would later become the epicenter of much debate and fervor for many residents, echoing issues eight years into the future.

By October 1, 1999 Arbor Place Mall was open to the public, attracting people all across the metro Atlanta area and parts of eastern Alabama. The two major transportation corridors that intersected Interstate 20, Highway 5 and Chapel Hill Road, took the brunt of vehicular traffic, spreading it elsewhere in asphalt arteries moving south and west. In the following years, other shopping centers would crop up in places where pastures once dominated.

Douglasville’s city limits were expanded southward in the movement to collect more tax dollars, annexing land to provide more retail centers. Major players like Wal-Mart went to great lengths to build a Super Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club half a mile away from the mall, while shutting down other operations throughout the county. Focus was narrowing inward in Douglas County, so much so that some communities were becoming left behind.

(more…)

Going by an eleven year old map, some books and a few reports, searching for history in Douglas County is like searching for lost treasure. And in some ways it is. Instead of one “X” there are close to one hundred X’s spread across the county that Losing Georgia has found, some undocumented or not considered historical. Yet other X’s are out there in the deep Georgia pine forests, awaiting discovery - for someone to remember.

Where pastures and battlefield scars used to decorate the land, now subdivisions and distributions centers fill-in the void, lending a change for human progress. Sometimes shear luck plays a role, following the cold waters of an unknown creek to find the remnants of what used to be an old homestead. Finding history is possible, but a time consuming adventure that reaps of awards and dirty jeans.

Take for instance the Edge House located near the intersection of Riverside Parkway and Rock House Road. During the Civil War this two-story rock house near the Chattahoochee River served Confederate soldiers as they built a trench line along a nearby hill to evade off the coming Union forces. But the effort was not enough and Union soldiers took over Edge’s house and land. As of 1995 the ruins of the old rock house were standing, but now distribution centers consume the intersection, fearing that the historical site might be lost for good.

What about the Dog River swimming hole where Cherokee Indians and residents swam for many years. Residents say it was a famous, fun and popular place in the early days. The waters were cool, but calm in a valley that stretched for miles.

Clinging onto the past maybe foolish at times, but the voices that yield in the crevasses of long ago can teach us what it is to be a Douglas County resident.

Finally its here, the Town Hall Forum is open to the public where people can discuss all kind of issues. Since Douglas County does not have an adequate portal/forum, hopefully the Town Hall Forum will bridge that gap. Over the past four days the forum has been beta tested to ensure that features run smoothly. To make a post you have to register with the forum, which operates independently from the Losing Georgia website.

Included is a calendar where users can list certain activities on dates, so far I have included some meetings by both local governments. Each forum category is collapsible to free up space on smaller monitors, forum sections are broken down to make posting easier, and syndication is available through RSS 2.0 for the whole forum or individual sections.

More features will be added on in the next couple of days. If there are features, improvements or bugs, please leave a comment or send an e-mail.

The Losing Georgia: Interactive Tour has been updated with 1 new development, 1 new overlay, more community features. The public library system in Douglas County has now been added under the Community section, including the address, phone number and operating hours of each library. Users of the Interactive Tour need to refresh the Network Link file and new users can download the KMZ file or head over to the overview page if unfamiliar with the Interactive Tour.

Below is a list of additions and updates to the tour.

Developments

• South Central Wastewater Treatment Plant

Overlays

• Camp Creek Business Center Building D Site Plan

Renames

• Bear Creek Phase 2 to The Legends at Bear Creek

Public Libraries

• Douglas County Public Library
• Lithia Springs Public Library

The Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) is forced to expand their areas of operation because of increasing record growth in the past six years. Currently the WSA is constructing the new South Central Wastewater Treatment Plant on Fouts Mill Road, adjacent to the South Central Urban Water Reuse Facility. Already in progress is the Fouts Mill Road realignment to eliminate the sharp curve intersection at Highway 166.

The new treatment plant is scheduled to become operational in Spring 2008, able to handle six million gallons of wastewater. In turn, the opening of the plant will cause other treatment plants to shutdown - Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant, St. Andrews Wastewater Treatment Plant, and Rebel Trails Treatment Plant.

The Southside plant, located on Anneewakee Creek in the Chapel Hill subdivision, will remain open, but function as a new pump station to facilitate the new treatment plant. Some of the services currently at the plant, like a water testing lab, along with personnel will move relocated to new South Central facility. The holding tanks will be demolished and operation will be handled by automation.

Also the Sweetwater Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant will be expanding before the end of 2007. Today the plant handles 3 millions gallons of wastewater per day, while the expansion will double the capacity to 6 million in response to the nearby large community development, The Tributary at New Manchester .

In the newly developed St. Andrews Club Estates subdivision, the WSA also installed their latest pump station. As the more homes are being built within southwest Douglas County, water is coming in high demand along with sewer.

The old Chapel Hill Wastewater Treatment Plant, located on Chapel Hill Road north of Fowler Field, has been vacant for many years and is being used as storage center for spare parts. The WSA may demolish this plant sometime in the future.

A new 2 million gallon water storage tank is being planned to be installed behind the Exxon gas station on Anneewakee Road. The WSA purchased the 2.88 acre plot from Stephen Paul for a cost of $270,000. The tank will be predominantly underground while protruding above ground less than forty feet, serving the need of firefighters and nearby subdivisions like the Tributary.

To learn more about the various WSA facilities and other community information, check out the Community Live View with Google Maps or the Interactive Tour.

One of the problems that come for development is people illegally dumping articles of trash, further endangering the local environment and wildlife. In the past Losing Georgia has documented several instances where garbage has been unloaded in cul-de-sacs, left there for months at a time without attempts to clean the area.

According to Douglas County code, developers are solely responsible for preventing illegal dumping. If a developer is caught dumping trash in a development, then the developer will be charged. However if the developer can manifest evidence to show that someone else conducted the act, then the guilty party will have to deal with the infractions.

Recently Losing Georgia visited the Windermere development off of Highway 166 to discover someone had dumped trash at a cul-de-sac. It is unknown who left the garbage and how long it had been there. However the majority of the development has been well maintained, with a few exceptions of minor sedimentation problems.

Based on observation, the greater part of the trash problem is in more rural areas in the western half of the county. Although problems have been found within the Douglasville city limits, it is not as extensive since 25% of all development is in the City and are predominantly commercial.

Illegal dumping will continue to be a problem so as long people have the opportunity to offload trash in areas where development has become rampant and lacks enforcement. This issue is one of many consequences that occur as a result of overdevelopment. Focus diminishes on this rather small issue since larger problems, like transportation/infrastructures, affect the community on a grander base.

Douglas County has an extraordinary environment, with creeks and rivers running clear in the Piedmont foothills, for such a small county in the metro Atlanta area. In the past people moved to the county based on its quiet, yet subtle country feel that embraced the natural setting. However this is no longer the case, as the local environment has taken a toll by deforestation, illegal dumping and unresponsiveness, in the push to urbanize or suburbanize.