Has anyone ever wondered WHY the Roundabout at Steve Tate & Cover Rd. exists? WHO paid to design and build it? WHO owns it? WHO pays to maintains it? And perhaps most importantly to today’s issues… WHO is SUPPOSED to be paying to maintain it?
Let’s jump in…
#1 – The Roundabout was lobbied for by the Big Canoe Developer to use as a Tie-In Entrance to the 1400 Unit Potts Mountain Development that was Planned, and then Abandoned, almost a decade ago. As you are coming from the Foothills Shopping Center – that right hand “entry” into Potts Mountain was originally going to go into a huge community with another 18 Holes of Golf, Commercial Districts etc. So that is WHY it was done.
#2 – The Big Canoe Developer Designed it, and Built it as part of an Agreement between the County & the Developer back in 2008. It was completed in 2010.
#3 – The Roundabout Land is owned by Pickens County as part of the Public Roads Network. As far back as records searches can find, the only thing the County has ever contributed to the upkeep… is that they installed rumble strips in the approach to the Roundabout on Cove Rd.
#4 – WHO pays to maintain it is a 2 part anwer.
a) The Developer paid for all maintenance, repairs, replacements to damage etc until 2014, or shortly thereafter. A March 2014 Board Minutes reference to some maintenance work (made by Mike Rhodes, who was at the time the Developer Rep on the POA Board) is the last documented reference to the Developer performing maintenance on the Roundabout.
b) The earliest report of actual work being done on the Roundabout by the Big Canoe Property Owners Association was found in a January 2019 Admin report. However, in the November 2018 Budget Meeting, there was for the 1st time a Budget Report (2019_Budget_Key_Bullet_Points.pdf) that stated, “Landscaping has the additional areas of responsibility at the Fire Station, neighborhood entrances and the roundabout at Steve Tate and Cove Road.” From that point on our Admin Reports and Capital Budgets are filled with activity and expenses that involve the POA paying for total Roundabout Maintenance.
So what changed? This is where it gets interesting, and where I believe that Property Owners need to start demanding some answers from our POA Board.
As part of the authorization by Pickens County to allow the Developer to construct the Roundabout, the Developer was required by Agreement to maintain the Roundabout.
Here is a Copy of that Agreement – 2009 Roundabout Agreement.
So we have a gap between 2014 and 2018 where there are no references (that FOBC could find) to Roundabout Maintenance by anyone, and during that time the maintenance inexplicably switched from the Developer to the POA. FOBC has the full cohort of documents between the parties in regards to the 2016 Land Deal. There is nothing in there in regards to a switch of responsibilities for the Roundabout. So what happened? We can only conjecture at this point.
The most interesting thing is the timing of the POA’s decision to take over Roundabout maintenance from the Developer (late 2018). At that time we had one of the more witless POA Boards in Big Canoe History (although the current Board is gving them a good run for the title). Jill Philmon was our GM at the time. Mike Rhodes was (a) the Developer Rep on the Board, (b) angling to become the “Developer”, and (c) was wheeling and dealing in secret with Philmon and the POA Board. It appears that not only did Rhodes dupe the POA into signing a precedent setting Trademark deal at this almost exact point in history… he was also convincing the Board that they needed to take over the very costly Roundabout Maintenance. Makes sense that he would want to unload that responsibility prior to potentially becoming the Developer (fyi… Rhodes never put together the developer deal, and we ended up with “Big Canoe Holdings” as the Developer… who in usual fashion, continues a longstanding Developer tradition of outwitting the clueless, and ever rotating POA Boards).
Recently this got on FOBC’s radar when the 2025 Capital Budgets started showing a planned $80,000 expense to again “upgrade” the Roundabout!?!? Seriously? We have the frickin Taj Mahal of Roundabouts, and I cannot imagine why, given our current fiscal position, we would want to fritter away yet another $80,000 on a clearly discretionary spend.
This leaves us with 3 questions that we need answers to…
A) WHY did the POA pickup the Developer’s responsibility? And if it was some sort of an Agreement… what did we get out of the deal? #TRANSPARENCY Please!!!
B) Explain to the property owners exactly what is so pressing that we need to spend $80,000 more on what is already the Taj Mahal of Roundabouts? I mean seriously… if you think you are going to substantially raise rates in the near future (I know you are discussing it) then you need to start explaining IN DETAIL how you are spending what you are already taking from us!
C) And again, WHY THE HELL isn’t the Developer paying for a Roundabout that they planned, designed, built (for their potentially exclusive benefit), and formally contracted to pay to maintain!?!?! Explain that to the Property Owners whose funds you are using!
“POA BOARD & GM SCOTT AUER…YOU OWE US ANSWERS!”
Peace,
– david / publisher / property owner
Focus on Big Canoe, GA
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