BridgeMill, SRCA at Impasse

Despite a joint meeting between the BridgeMill Community Association, members of the Sixes Road Community Association and county commissioner Karen Bosch, was made in reinstating the .

In fact, it appears that the opposing sides walked away from the April 1 meeting with different viewpoints of what took place at the meeting.

Essentially, both factions agree that one aspect of the meeting did occur: “The participants agreed to prepare together a detailed scope of services in order to solicit bids for resuming landscaping services in 2011, and to further investigate methods by which to reduce the cost of maintaining the roadway, before making a final decision about the immediate future of the SRCA,” SRCA president Geoff Jones said.

Aside from that, the two sides start to deviate.

BridgeMill board president Russ Caso told Canton-Sixes Patch that the meeting went about as well as he expected it to go.

“I think everybody wants to come to common ground, to come together to do this,” he said.

Louis Tooker, the SRCA board representative from Lake Sovereign, disagreed. He said he didn’t see BridgeMill willing to come together “unless (Caso) thinks the common ground is BridgeMill. All they want is to give their $25,000 and slash services.”

In fact, Tooker said he spoke to Caso at the meeting and asked him what his vision for Sixes Road was. Paraphrasing Caso’s response, Tooker said, “In the foreseeable future, to do as little as possible at the lowest possible cost.”

This approach of cost over services does not work for the other .

“Whereas BridgeMill is very willing to make significant reductions in services, the representatives of the other neighborhoods believe the previous level of maintenance to which we all have become accustomed is the minimum level with which they will be satisfied, and continue to believe that the benefit to homeowners in the Sixes Road Community far exceeds the $20 a home per year we all have agreed to pay,” Jones said.

Tooker also said he felt the BridgeMill board was misleading its residents on BridgeMill’s continued role with the SRCA.

In an email to its residents as well as in a post on the BridgeMill Residents Support Sixes Road Maintenance Facebook group page, the board said “the first order of business will be for the SRCA board, including two representatives appointed by the BridgeMill board, to meet in order to prepare a Request for Proposal for landscape maintenance and trash pick-up along Sixes Road and Bells Ferry Road.”

Tooker said that implies that the BridgeMill board has a say in what step the SRCA will take next.

“I believe the BMHOA’s e-mail is meant to create the impression that the SRCA is going to meet with two representatives, as if they remain members of the organization, to put together an RFP for landscaping services on Sixes Road,” he said. “While the SRCA intends to solicit BridgeMill’s input to the details of this RFP, we made it clear to them that BridgeMill is no longer a member neighborhood of the SRCA, and they have no voting power whatsoever. We will complete the RFP, and we will take bids from pre-qualified landscape companies. The SRCA next will analyze the bids, and we will meet with BridgeMill to determine whether common ground can be found for BridgeMill’s reinstatement into the SRCA.”

As for her role in the meeting, it appears that Karen Bosch simply sought to bring together all involved parties to reach a satisfactory compromise.

“Karen was very non-partisan during the meeting, seeking only to facilitate a search for common ground,” Tooker said.

For the moment, the bottom line is that both the BridgeMill board and the SRCA have yet to bridge the gap between their respective positions. At this time, the only progress will be the meeting to compose the RFP, which Jones reportedly will schedule as soon as possible.

Members of the Sixes Road Community Association at April 1 Meeting

Copper Creek

Lake Sovereign

Falls of Cherokee

Cherokee Falls/Estates at the Lake

Highland Point

Stonegate Community within BridgeMill