Judge Dismisses Attempt To Halt Ball Ground Recycling Deal

A Cherokee County Superior Court judge has rejected a request from a local Tea Party activist to prevent the county from closing on a deal that would bring the former Ball Ground Recycling plant back online.

Judge David Cannon Jr. on Thursday dismissed a request from residents Carolyn Cosby and Bill McNiff to impose an injunction to prevent the Resource Recovery Development Authority and Cherokee County Commission from approving a deal with Cowart Mulch Properties to take over operations at the facility.

Fellow resident Roger Carter initially signed on as petitioner, but later backed out due to “health reasons,” according to court documents. Court documents also show Woodstock lawyer Channing Ruskell served as attorney for the petitioners in the complaint.

Additionally, Cannon also issued an order requiring both Cosby and McNiff to ”provide security for the anticipated costs and damages to the respondents if the instant lawsuit and any appeal of same is ultimately unsuccessful.”

Both would be required to post a single $3.3 million bond within 10 days of the ruling “as a condition precedent to any further pursuit of this lawsuit, including any appeal, by the remaining petitioners against this respondent.” If no bond is filed, the petitioners’ lawsuit or any appeal in the case ”stand dismissed.”

As expected, Cosby blasted Cannon’s ruling, adding the families of the county have ”suffered a serious loss.”

“The losses in personal wealth, health and safety will only become more apparent as the Cowart business operation proceeds,” she said in her statement, adding she and her team are currently weighing their options.

Cherokee County in April approved a lease-purchase agreement with Cowart for $3 million. Owner Chris Cowart would lease the property at 5861 Ball Ground Highway, and make monthly payments of $11,853.63 to the county.

Cowart also agreed not to dump, store or bury any hazardous waste, substances or materials on the property.

Both parties also entered into a settlement agreement resolving allegations outlined lawsuits filed by Cowart against county commissioners in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and Cherokee County Superior Court.

The agreement, which went into effect May 1, ends the nearly four-year long saga stemming from former plant operator Jimmy Bobo’s default on bond payments backed by the county.

The county commission in 2006 created the Resource Recovery Development Authority and backed up to $18 million in bonds, which were used to relocate Ball Ground Recycling to land along Highway 5 just south of Ball Ground.

The agreement stipulated Bobo was to make payments of the bond into an escrow account, but the county learned in late 2011 Bobo hadn’t been making the payments.

Ball Ground Recycling in 2012 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the company was subsequently forced to remove itself from the property. The company was eventually dismissed from bankruptcy court, giving the county the green light to go after the company and Bobo to recover money from the failed deal.

However, the county in December approved a settlement agreement with Bobo in an effort to bring the issue to a close.

Commissioners approved a forensic audit at the request of a previous Cherokee County grand jury, which launched an investigation into the failed venture. The final tally of the audit’s cost was nearly a half-million dollars.

After several months of probing, a grand jury in August found no “prosecutable criminal case” with the venture and recommended the county divert its resources from investigating any criminal wrongdoing in the deal to finding a new operator for the vacant site.

Following the grand jury’s guidance, Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit District Attorney Shannon Wallace last year closed the investigation into the case, a probe that included the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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Photo credit: Patch file