Fred Baumann enjoys walking his dog at Bethel Park. He doesn’t want people to look back years from now and wonder why Forsyth County didn’t preserve access to the site on Lake Lanier.
An advocate for green space, Baumann said the county should acquire the park in northeastern Forsyth or negotiate with the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta, which wants to lease the site, for as much public access as possible.
Baumann was one of the few in an emotional crowd of 150 people at Monday night’s town hall meeting who didn’t pick sides in the divisive issue.
Baumann favors at least some public access to the park. Others seek total access and another group wants to abandon the yearslong legal battle over the site.
County Commissioner Patrick Bell, who organized the session, felt the large turnout could help shape the county’s next move.
“I hope that the commission will see that there’s passion on both sides — and valid passion,” Bell said afterward.
U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story recently denied the county’s request to stop the YMCA from developing a youth camp on two of the park’s three peninsulas.
Bell, whose district includes the park, said the commission has three options: appeal Story’s decision, continue with its lawsuit or drop both fights and negotiate with the YMCA.
“We’re on the losing side right now, but we have not lost,” said Bell, who wants to stop spending money on the legal fight and negotiate with the YMCA.
Commissioners are divided on the issue, Bell said, but they must make a decision before the Jan. 23 deadline to appeal.
The YMCA has worked since 2003 to lease the site from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The corps expected to do so in 2006. But in response to residents’ complaints, the county also sought to lease the property and submitted its plans in 2007.
The corps granted a lease to the YMCA instead of the county last year, citing the law of preference given to whichever better serves the public interest. The county has argued that the local government should have been given the right to first refusal.
Jeff Anderson spoke on behalf of those who believe the YMCA should be welcomed. A member of the YMCA, Anderson said the camp would be there for county children who are currently “outsourced” to faraway resident camps.
The Friends of Bethel Park group wants to keep the site public. Michael Durkin, founder of the group, said Monday that he wants the county to acquire “as much green space as possible.”
Other attendees worried about how taxpayer money was being spent. According to Bell, more than $50,000 has gone toward the legal costs of Bethel Park so far. An appeal could cost another $10,000 to $15,000.
To Kim Pruitt, the appeal would be worth it. “We are going to have to fight it now or we are going to have to fight it later, and we’re already halfway there,” she said.
In addition to the mounting legal fees, many expressed concerns about the costs of the county acquiring and operating the park.
The county’s plan for Bethel calls for a camping and RV park, which resident William Byers compared to Shady Grove Park, also on the lake. Byers said county figures show that Shady Grove loses about $384,000 each year.