Mayor Would Side With Potentially Displaced Homeowners' in Fight for New School District

Riley Place homeowners are considering their options in a fight against moving Heards Ferry Elementary School into their neighborhood and residents out by eminent domain, according to Chris Clark, president of the homeowners association.

The Fulton County Board of Education is considering the relocation of Heards Ferry Elementary to their neighborhood on the southern end of Riverside Drive.

“Momentum is building for community-wide fundraising to oppose this decision in court,” said Clark in an April letter to Fulton School Board member Gail Dean.

Clark also said momentum is building for a new school district for North Fulton.

Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos says she supports that idea. “I would greatly favor the establishment of a North Fulton school district,” Galambos told Patch. “There are so many small school districts South Georgia where people are thinking about consolidating and that would open the door for a new school district in North Fulton.”

The Mayor said it's necessary for financial reasons. “We put huge amounts of money into Fulton that gets redistributed to South Fulton, and I think we have different aspirations up here.” 

Below: New School Could Sit on Sewer Problem

Riley Place homeowners simply want to keep the school out of their neighborhood and literally their backyard. During a March public meeting on moving Heards Ferry, Patrick Burke, Deputy Superintendent of Operations for Fulton County Schools, said that by voting for the SPLOST referendum in November 2011, Sandy Springs residents approved moving Heards Ferry.  Residents say they thought the measure was to rebuild the school at its current location.

Herb Carter has two properties at the proposed site. The school board wants his Riverside Drive property, where his son lives, which backs up to the yard of his Riley Place residence, he said.

“If I look out my kitchen window, [I would be] looking at a school,” Carter said.

Carter said the process seems awkward. “People in the Heards Ferry area don’t want the school to move and we don’t want it here. It makes you wonder who is pushing this thing and why are they in such a hurry,” he said.

In his letter to Dean, Clark brings up a sewer dilemma if Heards Ferry were moved to the south end of Riverside Drive.

“There is no sanitary sewer service south of I-285 on Riverside Drive or the streets branching off of it. The cost of providing these services, as well as the inevitable required widening of Riverside Drive will be staggering,” wrote Clark. 

He explained to Patch that homes in the neighborhood are on septic tanks. “They would have to run a whole new sewer main out of the school site and that has to be drained by gravity, and that would come through three backyards on Riley Place and hook into a main on Powers Ferry Road,” Clark said.

Residents and Sandy Springs officials have complained that the Fulton Board has not conducted an inclusive process on moving Heards Ferry. 

“…There has been no response from staff to the community, despite that response being promised,” Clark wrote to Dean.

Earlier in April, Sandy Springs City Council passed an official resolution calling on the Fulton Board of Education to meet with them on the relocation of Heards Ferry Elementary. On Friday, Mayor Galambos told Patch the city had not yet heard from the school board.

Patch and Gail Dean exchanged messsages but did not speak directly before this story was published. 

 See also:

• Op-Ed Urges Fulton Schools to Utilize Residents' Expertise in Heards Ferry Elementary Decisions

• Residents Strongly Oppose Moving Heards Ferry Elementary at Meeting

• Mayor Wants to Hear Justification for Moving Heards Ferry Elementary

• (Video) Councilman Wants City in the Loop on Heards Ferry Elementary Decisions

• Homeowners Fight Eminent Domain That Would Make Way for New Heards Ferry Elementary