Reflections on Three Lakes

Swimming Area in Mountain Park's Lake Garret, 1950s
The Beach is Now Gone Due to Sedimentation

I hope I've not worn folks out with my posts on Mountain Park. I have just this one more to do-- my analysis.

The towns of Mountain Park and Pine Lake, 40 miles from one another and both in the Metropolitan Atlanta area, were created in, respectively, the 1920s and 1930s, and so were their lakes (Mountain Park has a second lake that was created in the 1950s).

Both towns are tiny incorporated cities surrounded by suburbia run amok.Both are retro idyllic community filled with trees, wildlife, and quirky, passionate people who love their lakes.

And both have aging lakes that have been shallowed by sedimentation.

Mountain Park lies considerably further from Atlanta than does Pine Lake, and so the immediate surrounding area developed later there.While the neighborhoods around Pine Lake were pretty much built by the 1970s, development near Mountain Park was heavy into the 1990s and early 2000s. And not only that-- the houses were more upscale and hence bigger, with more potential for disrupting the fragile economy of the lakes.

Mountain Park, faced with unchecked runoff from unscrupulous developers, chose to sue them for damaging the city's lake. Although the city won the lawsuit, the battle, which lasted for five years, cost a million dollars in legal fees, for which the courts held the city responsible. This was offset by a mere $50,000 financial award.

The resulting debt has, as one might expect, created a financial crisis in mountain Mountain Park's finances and fostered division amongst its citizenry. Residents in the small Cherokee County portion of the city are clamoring for separation and feelings are running high both for and against. The city is apparently holding out on hopes for partial reimbursement of legal expenses from insurance, but for now the lakes continue to fill with silt and Mountain Park is in pain.

This is merely my analysis. It's absolutely not meant to be a judgment on Mountain Park's city government. Their situation differs from ours, and their government did its best to save their lakes.

That's what our city government is doing, too, and than, goodness there are no lawsuits. And thank goodness Mayor Greg Zarus, City Manager Phil Howland, and the city council somehow found a way to fund berm enhancement and dreding of our aging lake without the citizens having to shoulder the $1,400,000 expense.

Pine Lake's center is its lake. Mountain Park's heart and soul is its twin lakes, and especially Lake Garret. If our lake were to become dry land and remade as a village green, Pine Lake would not be the same. And certainly Mountain Park will  change as Lake Garret continues to dry up.

Here's hoping Mountain Park finds a way to save their lakes and their precious community.

Swimming in Pine Lake, ca 1930s or 1940s

In Recent Years Our Beach Has Been Closed
Many Days Due to High Bacterial Counts

A Deeper and Cooler Lake Will Hopefully
Keep the Beach Open Even on the Hottest Days