District gets Superior Court hearing Monday
By Lorraine Bennett
Staff Writer
A $3 million suit The Ridges Management Company has filed against the Clay County Water and Sewer District will get a hearing in Superior Court in Graham County on Monday.
Almost a year ago, in February 2022 Scotty Fain, president of the Ridges Management Company Inc. filed a complaint in Superior Court alleging the Clay County Water and Sewer District had failed to live up to an agreement permitting 400 sewer taps onto the water district’s sewer system.
The complaint alleges that Clay County encouraged the development of The Ridges at Mountain Harbor subdivision with the understanding The Ridges would be able to utilize Clay County’s sewer system.
The compliant says the county had promised, in an agreement in July 2005, to allow The Ridges access and use of the sewer system if The Ridges would construct and install an extension of the county’s existing sewer and water infrastructure in the subdivision.
Now, the complaint alleges, the county is attempting to rescind the allocation permits and terminate the agreement. The rationale for rescinding that the county alleges is (1) the changing of administrations in the water district and (2) The Ridges’ non-use of the allocation.
Counsel for The Ridges, Ward M. Collins of Collins & Hensley law firm of Franklin, argues the agreement between Clay County and The Ridges defined how the agreement could be terminated – only if the water district ceases to exist or if the agreement is “jointly terminated” by The Ridges and the district – neither which have occurred.
“This amounts to nothing less than a wholesale breach of the agreement entered into in 2005,” Collins wrote in a letter to the Clay County Water & Sewer District in September 2021.
In a February 2021 letter to The Ridges Management Company, the county argued the individuals and entities that were allocated flow did not use their allocations for more than five years and therefore the county was rescinding the allocation permit.
In a September 2021 letter to the Clay County Water & Sewer District, Collins argued that the agreement remains valid and enforceable and demands the water district (1) reaffirm the agreement in writing and (2) take all measures and actions necessary to resume performance of the agreement.
“My client has not breached its end of the bargain. The agreement is not terminated. It is hard to fathom how a court would rule that the agreement is terminated. The agreement could not be clearer on these terms,” Collins wrote in his letter.
The Progress asked county officials to comment on the suit. Chairman Dr. Rob Peck declined saying they have no intention of trying this case in the press.