September 29, 2004
Albany- This was never meant to be the future of Home Drive.
The property in Northwest Dougherty County was bought in 1999 to be a future elementary school. The board at the time purchased it from T. Gray Fountain for more than $290,000. The current board will sell it back to his daughters for less than half that price.
"When I reviewed the contract and got on the board, the contract was a contract I thought should never be signed because there was a clause in there about whether we built the school or not, we would have to build an expensive lift station," said school board member Willie Weaver, who is also an attorney and a magistrate judge.
Putting a lift station on the property would have been expensive and that has made it hard to sell.
"It's been very difficult because the contract that was signed initially had that clause in it, so whoever would have bought the property from us would have been stuck putting a lift station there based on the contract we signed years ago."
During those years, the people who live in the area fought the school. And this year, board chairman C.W. Grant lost the election to James Bush who made Home Drive his campaign focus.
"If the deal goes through with Dr. Fountains daughters, it's over with, it's over," Weaver said.
And these 14 acres will no longer be a school board hot button.
posted at 10:14 p.m. by brannon.stewart@walb.com
School Board member Willie Weaver
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