County residents came out en masse at last night’s Board of Commissioners meeting to protest the Carroll County Water Authority’s policy forbidding fishing and recreational use of its only reservoir, Lake Seaton.

“The taxpayers, to my mind, own everything the county owns ... I feel like we have a right to this lake down there,” said Hubert Carroll, of Carrollton.

Lake Seaton, completed in 2001, has never had fishing, boating or any other recreational uses allowed on its waters. The water authority is currently being sued by a different set of property owners around the lake, who say they were told that when Lake Seaton was completed, it would eventually allow such uses.

Stanley Tate, chairman of the water authority Board of Directors, was not present at the meeting. In a telephone interview, Tate said he understood people were upset, but said by forbidding access, the county could spend the money it would need to monitor recreational users on other things, such as extending water lines to people whose wells have dried up.

“We understand people like to fish, and we appreciate their desire have access to the lake to fish,” Tate said. “But we have to prioritize how our resources are used, and right now we think it’s more important to manage the lake in a way that we can make sure we can provide adequate water for the people of Carroll County.”

Tate said neighboring counties with similar-sized reservoirs spent about $200,000 a year monitoring recreational users, and that the Carroll County Water Authority could not afford to do that.

Douglas County spends about $140,000-$170,000 monitoring recreational use of its primary reservoir, Dog River Reservoir, according to Mike Patton, deputy director of the Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority.

Fishing and electric-motor boating are among the uses allowed on Dog River Reservoir, Patton said. The primary cost of monitoring them: two security officers, and two to three ticket attendants for the point of access to the reservoir, the Dog River Reservoir Recreation Complex.

Carrollton has three smaller reservoirs, including Lake Carroll, on which it allows electric-motor boating, swimming and fishing. Assistant City Manager Tim Grizzard didn’t immediately know how much it cost the city to monitor recreational users, however.

Comparing different water authorities is not always an apples-to-apples comparison. For instance, Carrollton has no residents on wells, and thus doesn’t need to spend the money the water authority does connecting them when some residents’ wells run dry.

As for Douglas County, its water authority’s total budget is about $32 million this year, dwarfing a Carroll County Water Authority budget of about $8.5 million.

“The Carroll County Water Authority is not the richest water authority, and we have limited resources that we have to manage,” Tate said. “Our mission, our charge from the Legislature, is to provide water for residents of unincorporated areas of the county, and that mission is much more critical because of the drought.”

The Board of Commissioners cannot directly change water authority policy. It is a separate entity created by the state. Each commissioner and the commission chairman do appoint the voting members of the water authority Board of Directors, however.

“You all don’t control it in one sense, but you’re also in a position to put pressure,” Carroll said to the county commission last night.

Carroll and others asked the commissioners to promise they would make their appointee vote in favor of opening up the reservoir, or not re-appoint them. Chairman Bill Chappell, who would be charged with reappointing Tate, so promised, as did Commissioner John Wilson, who would be charged with reappointing water authority member Jerry Shadinger. Other commissioners said they would talk to their appointees.

“That would be wise, because the ones that aren’t for fishing, we’re going to do our best to vote them folks out of there,” said Rayford Garrett, another resident at the meeting.

The Board of Commissioners took other action last night, including a formal request to County Attorney Tommy Greer to begin reviewing the county’s sign ordinance, particularly as it relates to political signage.

Right now several candidates for local government are breaking provisions in the county’s sign ordinance, including one provision that requires a $500 bond to put up political signs in the county, and another provision that forbids putting up signs until 12 weeks “before a duly authorized election.”

Greer said he considered the ordinance to have many flaws, and county staff said in part because of that, it had almost never been enforced.

“It’s unconstitutional, it’s unenforcable ...What it is is a disaster,” Greer said.

The county commission also received three recommended architects for the proposed county courthouse addition, and/or possible replacement. A steering committee comprised of courthouse users - mostly elected officials, such as Sheriff Terry Langley and Superior Court Judge John Simpson - recommended the three to the commission last night.

They are, in order of preference: Heery International Inc.; Gardner, Spencer, Smith, Tench and Harbeau; and Pond and Company.

Simpson said the steering committee favored Heery and used experience, particularly experience building courthouses, as its guide for the architects. Those three companies will give presentations to the county commission at a later date.

The county also held a public hearing for the first stage of its comprehensive plan for growth last night. That stage will not be sent to the state for review.