Gainesville requests mediation on Cedar Creek

GAINESVILLE - Gainesville City Council returned from a brief executive session Tuesday night to approve a motion to send a letter to the Georgia EPD Director Allen Barnes asking for non-binding mediation with Hall County on the city's 2006 agreement with Hall County on the Cedar Creek Reservoir.

The motion from Mayor Pro tem Danny Dunagan asks the director to select the mediator. Mayor Ruth Bruner said she hopes this will settle who has title to the reservoir, the city or the county, since the city wants to build a water treatment plant there.

"We can't build the treatment plant without a permit and without a deed," the Mayor said. "We felt that was implied in the 2006 contract but the county does not agree with that. The county and the city met today informally with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and his staff and we talked about moving forward with Glades Farm and Cedar Creek. We decided the best way to move forward from where we are now was to go into non-binding mediation with the county."

Federal Judge Paul Magnuson's ruling just over a year ago set 2012 deadline for getting Lake Lanier reauthorized for water consumption, or that consumption would be severely cut. Mayor Bruner said that is why the city wants to go to mediation to work something out and get the Cedar Creek plant built and in place when Magnuson's ruling comes down in 2012.

"We may not have Lake Lanier reauthorized and if we do we'll still need that water in Cedar Creek before too many years down the road," Bruner said.

Hall County commissioners also have to vote to send the letter. They meet Thursday evening in regular session. The reservoir was built with Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenues and the county holds the permit and the deed.