Bibb County joins newest border dispute fight

Bibb County is now fighting in the latest battleground in the Bibb-Monroe county border dispute.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge this week allowed Bibb County to become part of the lawsuit between Monroe County and Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Monroe County wants a judge to overturn Kemp’s ruling, saying he’d made serious errors in rejecting a border survey favored by Monroe County.

Mincing few words, Bibb County’s attorneys argue that Monroe County’s effort “is frivolous and has no support in law or fact.”

Kemp hasn’t responded yet to the lawsuit. Bibb County is essentially taking his side, saying he correctly rejected a survey that claimed to bring clarity to a long-disputed border location.

Both Bibb and Monroe counties argue they have volumes of historical evidence to support their claims about the border’s location. The biggest dispute is over the border’s eastern corner, marked by one or two ferry sites on the Ocmulgee River that operated in 1822.

The latest lawsuit involves shots fired many times before. Monroe County argues that Kemp didn’t give enough credit to an an assistant administrative law judge, John Sherrill, who said Terry Scarborough’s survey was accurate and legal. Bibb County argues Scarborough never searched for court records and other documents that would have changed his mind about where the eastern corner really is.

Bibb County is turning again to claims that Scarborough was biased because he’s a cousin of a former Monroe County commissioner. Those arguments have been rejected before, but nearly every argument in the border dispute case has been rejected at least once by someone.

The exact location of the border -- created in 1822, and amended in 1877 -- has been in dispute since at least the 1940s.

The Scarborough survey, and years of legal maneuvering, were launched by a Monroe County grand jury request to the state’s governor to determine the location of the border. Bibb County says some Monroe County commissioners were pushing the border dispute because of the announcement of a big Bass Pro Shops store and warehouse to be placed in the disputed area.

Last year, another Monroe County grand jury asked for a new border survey if the Scarborough survey doesn’t settle the issue. Gov. Nathan Deal has reportedly been looking for a new surveyor.

To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.

This story was originally published February 4, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bibb County joins newest border dispute fight."