Politics & Government

Cherokee Commission To Meet on Ball Ground Recycling Case

The commission and the Resource Recovery Development Authority will meet jointly to review the latest in the company's bankruptcy case.

The Cherokee County Commission and the Resource Recovery Development Authority will hold a called meeting this afternoon to review the latest in the Ball Ground Recycling bankruptcy case.

The meeting will start at 4 p.m. at the county administration building.

Both entities, made up of the five commissioners, will also review the status of replacing some members of the RRDA and discuss the status of a request for proposals to conduct a forensic audit of the company's financial records and county's documents relating to the case.

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Both bodies will adjourn into executive session to discuss litigation and other aspects of the bankruptcy case.

The commission in 2006 created the Resource Recovery Development Authority and backed up to $18 million in bonds, which were used to relocate the former Cherokee Recycling to land along Highway 5 just south of Ball Ground.

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The agreement stipulated Ball Ground Recycling owner Jimmy Bobo was to make payments of the bond into an escrow account, but the county learned last year Bobo hadn't been making the payments. That forced the county to pick up the tab, which it will still be responsible for if it does not find a new operator for the site.

Ball Ground Recycling in late May filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the company was subsequently forced to remove itself from the property. The county, along with the RRDA, have been in bankruptcy court trying to remove the automatic stay imposed by the bankruptcy filing.

The Cherokee County grand jury in June decided to launch an investigation into the deal and earlier this month issued 13 recommendations for the county in the aftermath of the deal gone sour.

The most notable recommendations include calling for a forensic audit into the financial dealings of Ball Ground Recycling; replacing the members of the Resource Recovery Development Authority with non-elected officials; placing on the ballot any future partnership between the county and private entity which would call for issuing bonds; and for the county to exhaust all avenues to recoup money owed to taxpayers in the failed business.

It also recommended the county look into recovering the cost of removing debris from the Blalock Road site. 

The grand jury earlier this month also decided to “investigate and further inquire into the Resource Recovery Development Authority of Cherokee County, its books, sites, and property in order to clarify the details that led up to the County having to assume the re-payment of the bonds that funded Ball Ground Recycling, LLC.”


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