Barker Overlook Project - Another Forsyth County Commission Boondoggle

Forsyth County Commission Must be Reformed

Before I get going, regarding my candidacy to become Forsyth County District 1 Commissioner, someone recently asked me, “What will [I] do differently than [Kerry] Hill to make positive changes?” For the record, here were my responses.

1. Restore accountability of the Board of Commissioners.

2. Restore democratic processes in deciding sizable county expenditures.

3. Restore an equitable working relationship with the City of Cumming.

4. Stop the horrendous overspending of county tax dollars.

5. Role back millage rates.

6. Make county government work for the taxpayers who fund it, and not simply create jobs for bureaucrats and technocrats to devise ways to control undo aspects of taxpayer life in the county.

7. Stop the hidden misuse of taxpayer moneys - no more five-star luxury retreats for commissioners and ranking staff members.

Barker Overlook - the Latest County Boondoggle

But today I want to talk about the latest boondoggle project on which your Forsyth County Commission is wasting tax dollars, the “Barker Overlook.” Granted, on the surface, the project sounds almost sexy. And once someone gains access to the grounds, I am sure the surroundings and views will be pleasurable. But there are intrinsic problems with that project, and always have been, sufficient enough that in the final analysis the Barker Overlook project makes little sense, which is why the property has been sitting dormant for the last 22 years.

Jim Barker was an architect who built and lived in the “George Jetson house,” a local landmark for decades, atop Sawnee Mountain, located, incidentally, almost directly up the mountain from my back yard. Winde and I met Mr. Barker several times, as his dog was known to venture down the mountain and end up in our back yard. When that happened, we would call Mr. Barker, a very nice man, and he would drive down to rescue his canine companion. He was always smiling, talkative, even apologetic and very grateful when we called.

Mr. Barker’s “George Jetson” House atop Sawnee Mountain

After Mr. Barker died, in 2003 Forsyth County purchased the mountaintop home and grounds from his estate, doing so with the idea of making it into a county destination of sorts. But, they really had no firm plan or vision. They just had a few extra tax dollars sitting around and decided to spend them, a prime example of how governmental spending decisions are made.

As you can see, Mr. Barker designed the home with views in all directions. That being the case, the thought of opening the home to the public had a certain interest and appeal, so much so that the Forsyth County Commission apparently could not resist the purchase.

Making Mr. Barker’s home into a county attraction was a nice thought, but unfortunately, no one at the time performed much due diligence, and as several boards of commissioners have discovered, opening the home, or opening that property for public use, lacked certain feasibility, then as well as today.

First of all, there is no access by vehicle and no room for parking even if there were. The one-lane Tower Road was built many, many decades ago, even before Mr. Barker lived there, apparently to provide access to numerous communications towers located on the crest of the Mountain. The road is treacherous and barely maintained. It is full of potholes, and crumbling pavement. There are no guardrails to protect drivers from peril should they wander a little off the road’s center line. For these reasons, the Barker Overlook will never be, a “drive-in destination.”

So that you can see what we are talking about, here is a 3-minute video that will take you up Tower Road, all the way to the top, show you the condition of its unmaintained, crumbling, single-lane driving surface, and the treacherous fall-offs, unprotected by guardrails. Obviously, the more people who drive up and down Tower Road, the more chance of mishap, and the faster the road surface will continue to deteriorate.

The Barker property, including Mr. Barker’s home, sat owned by Forsyth County Government, however unused, for a decade and a half, its state of repair finally deteriorating to the point that it had to be condemned and torn down. That should not surprise anyone. That is what government does with nice things, allowing them to deteriorate, in the end being forced by health and safety concerns to demolish them.

Without massive road improvements and adequate parking, for which there is insufficient physical space, the property should have been sold to someone who could make better personal use of it. It wasn’t, and now history is repeating. Recently, the Forsyth County Commission ignored all common sense, just like it did 22 years ago, deciding to pour perfectly good tax dollars into force fitting the Barker property to become one of its parks and recreation “destinations,” perhaps to become the “Rock City of Forsyth County,” from where an onlooker might see 7 counties.

I Can See It Now

The access to this destination, however, is so poor, and frankly so dangerous, that very few visitors other than those who already live atop the mountain, will likely ever use it.

Below is Parks and Rec Director, Kirk Franz, putting a brave face on this decision, reasoning that since the access to the new destination is so difficult, the county wants to make the “payoff” for those who attempt the day-long hike in-and-out, over mountainous terrain, worth their investment in time and energy.

Most visitors, however, who make it to where Mr. Franz is standing, will not be able to “stop and reflect” very long, or they will risk returning to their original access point after dark. Four miles hiking toward a destination over mountainous terrain also means four miles hiking back to one’s starting point. Perhaps determined, however stranded, mountaineers will call chase vehicles to venture up the one lane county road, all the way to the top of Sawnee Mountain, and ferry weary hikers back down to their vehicles.

Barker Overlook Project Defies Prevailing, “Slow Growth” County Policy

Time after time, when Forsyth County citizens are asked to describe the biggest problems in the county, for as long as I can remember the answer has been, growth and traffic. To combat that problem, during what he termed a “chance meeting,” Commission Chairman Alfred John recently formulated a deal with Board of Education Chairman Mike Valdez to manufacture and publish a physical reason to justify imposing a building and zoning moratorium. As we speak, however, nonsensically with respect to any “slow growth policy,” the Forsyth County Commission continues to build or enhance more and more “destinations,” the Barker Overlook being a prime example, attractions which do nothing if they do not attract more people to move to Forsyth County, encourage more and more new development, more and more new homes, stimulating population growth and traffic congestion. Apparently, your county commission would like the public to believe these destinations are only for people who already live in Forsyth County, but that is not what happens. Such “attractions” create the impression to the outside public that living in Forsyth County would be like living at their favorite vacation destination, which encourages people to pick up stakes and move here.

So, for me, I say enough with the attractions already, especially one’s like the Barker Overlook, photos from which will be used in brochures to market Forsyth County to new prospective residents, stimulate population growth and make traffic congestion even worse. If you build it, yes, they will indeed come. I do not believe in making Forsyth County, and certainly not District 1, into Disneyland. The Forsyth County Commission is spending your tax dollars out of control, in violation of their stated prime objective of slowing growth.

Commissioners Spent $1.4 million of Your Money Without Batting an Eye

I want you to watch and notice how efficiently your Forsyth County Commissioners spent 1.4 million dollars of your money. The deliberation to approve the Barker Overlook project took just over a minute before Kerry Hill’s motion to vote. Watch:

So, there you have it, the Barker Overlook project, the latest county commission boondoggle, passed by a unanimous vote with hardly a question being asked. Understand that if I am sitting at that table, my questions would be along the following:

“You said, this was a hike-in, hike-out destination. Has anyone we know done this hike? How long did it take them? What did they say about it? How strenuous was it? Have you done this hike? How would a normal mom and dad and a couple of school-aged kids do on this 8-mile round-trip hike up and down mountainous terrain? You said there were picnic tables there. Are hikers supposed to carry provisions with them on this 8-mile hike, or will there be food and water at the summit? What about running water, septic and bathroom facilities? How many people do we anticipate to make this 8-mile round-trip hike each year? What do we base that estimate on? What percentage of the county population would that be? Has the area been cored to determine whether the contractor might encounter solid rock once he begins to grade the property? No? Is their a rock provision in the contract? What if blasting is necessary? Would encountering rock blow the $1.4 million budget? Would the county manager have to come back to the commission for more money, or are we already approving more money for those kinds of problems with today’s vote?…So, if I have this right, Forsyth County would be spending $1.4 million of taxpayer funds to provide an opportunity for exercise and a glimpse at the North Georgia Mountains for the tiniest segment of the county population able and motivated to make this hike, is that right? OK, then, what if we do not approve this project, how much would this property be worth if we sell it? With the same money we are spending, and accounting for the proceeds if we do sell it, how many linear feet of public sidewalk, for example, might the county provide to help keep pedestrians safe as they walk next to some of our busy roadways? Are there any other, perhaps more advantageous uses for that same money, including the money from a potential sale of the Barker property?”

The commissioners will say that the funds being used for the Barker Overlook come from SPLOST, that the voters already approved those funds to be used for parks and recreation. That’s fine. But did the voters also earmark those SPLOST funds to be used so ineffectively as to pour them into a project with so little payback as the Barker Overlook, and will only cause the county to invest more and more annual funds to maintain it? In other words, did the voters earmark their hard-earned SPLOST funds to be frittered away on more boondoggles?

No, they did not.

Now, one thing we do know is that the contractor whose $1.4 million bid was so expeditiously approved is very happy. Were there no other bids for this job? How many were solicited? How did those other bids, if any, come in?

District 1 Commissioner Kerry Hill - Asleep at the Wheel

Why is no one asking these perfectly normal questions which any prudent taxpayer would expect their commissioners to know the answers? Are the commissioners just asleep at the wheel? The Barker Overlook project is in District 1. District 1 commissioner is Kerry Hill, up for reelection in 2026. During the meeting, Commissioner Hill asked no questions whatsoever about this project, its reasonability, its cost effectiveness, nothing. In the video, Commissioner Hill just sat there until it was time for her to make the motion to accept the contract and spend taxpayer money. No one at this table was at risk. They are spending other peoples’ money, not their own. Their names will end up on a plaque at the top of Sawnee Mountain when the overlook is completed. (On the day the overlook is dedicated, my money says the commissioners will not choose to hike in.) This project should never have been approved. It is a waste of taxpayer money. Commissioner Hill should never have supported it, especially in her own district, another reason Commissioner Kerry Hill must be replaced in 2026.

How Government Stimulates Its own Growth

And incidentally, what we are seeing is how government stimulates its own growth. Whenever taxpayers allow the government to extract more tax dollars from the public than is really necessary, government will use those dollars to build things that subsequently require maintaining. What I am describing is why the Georgia Lottery has failed in its purpose to make higher education affordable. Once the Lottery passed, in areas all around the state, community colleges began receiving windfalls of cash, which should have been used solely to lower tuition costs. Instead, they used those funds to build more and more facilities and hire more and more professors and staff. Those facilities must be maintained. Once built, those facilities, therefore, require more and more student enrollment to pay for them and all the new personnel. As a result, most of those former community colleges have now become universities. Tuition has sky-rocketed. Commonly, now a four year degree leaves students with six-figure student loans requiring decades to pay off. That never happened before the lottery. And the same is true with county governments who tax the people more than is necessary to provide basic governmental services. Forsyth County Government overtaxed its citizens for several years before a split vote of the commissioners, 3 to 2, made the decision to spend $140 million of taxpayer funds on the Freedom Parkway Administration boondoggle. Three individuals out of a population of 280,000, made that regrettable decision. Those individuals were commissioners Alfred John, Laura Semanson and once again, District 1 Commissioner Kerry Hill. Taxpayers should realize that when the Freedom Parkway project is complete, that is when the costs of that decision truly begin.

What I Will Do as District 1 Forsyth County Commissioner

District 1 is the outermost, least spoiled area of Forsyth County. Just know that when I represent District 1, projects such as the Barker Overlook, with so little payoff for Forsyth County taxpayers, will not be approved without undergoing thorough scrutiny on my part. Providing that kind of oversight is the job of a county commissioner. Obviously, that job is not presently being performed. If Kerry Hill is reelected, just know that nothing will change. Kerry Hill is a placeholder, voting to get along with the rest of the commissioners. I am glad to get along with people, but I will not go along to get along. For these reasons and dozens of others, I urge you to support my candidacy to become the next Forsyth County Commissioner for District 1. Under my representation, you can be assured that District 1 will not become Disneyland. I will fight to maintain the historic character of the area, maintain slow growth by a encouraging large lot zonings, discourage smaller lot zonings, and require developers to design public interfaces such that they enrich the experiences of passers-by in keeping with historical norms of the area.