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Judge rules Houston widening can continue By Christopher Schwarzen A federal judge ruled the state can continue widening Houston Road while a pending case over the project's federal funding is considered. U.S. District Court Judge Duross Fitzpatrick ruled Monday afternoon there was not enough evidence to halt the widening of Houston Road to five lanes while a case filed by CAUTION Macon, a nonprofit group that has questioned the necessity of the project, remains in court. CAUTION filed suit in October, contending the Georgia Department of Transportation did not adequately consider environmental effects of the proposed widening. The group wants to stop federal funding for the $8 million project. DOT and Federal Highway Administration officials said during testimony at a January hearing that an environmental assessment was completed finding no significant effect to surrounding neighborhoods if the project was completed. Fitzpatrick said in his ruling that the state and Federal Highway Administration had followed proper procedures to determine environmental effects. "Unfortunately, for those who opposed this particular project, the courts have only a limited role to play in matters such as this," Fitzpatrick wrote. "In this case, the court finds that the defendant did not act arbitrarily and capriciously in deciding to issue a (finding of no significant effect)." Fitzpatrick wrote that he considered all evidence given during the four-day hearing, except for testimony given by Susan Hanberry, Dan Fischer and Doug Hayes. All three are members of CAUTION. Fitzpatrick ruled that none of the three had enough experience to testify as experts on air quality, land planning or road development. Walter Kulash, an engineer who has worked on some of the projects in the Macon-Bibb County Road Improvement Program, also testified as an expert road planner. Fitzpatrick did consider his testimony. Hale Almond, an attorney who represented the roads program in the case, said Tuesday the roads program was vindicated in its decision to widen Houston Road. "As noted by Judge Fitzpatrick in his order denying the request for a preliminary inunction to stop the project, plaintiffs failed to prove that the road improvement program acted in bad faith." CAUTION must now consider whether it wants to continue with the case or appeal the injunction decision. If they continue, Fitzpatrick will hear evidence again in a final hearing. Attempts to reach CAUTION members and their attorney Richard Hubert were unsuccessful Tuesday. Daryl Robinson, deputy counsel to the state attorney general, said Monday his office is waiting for Fitzpatrick to rule on the rest of the case. The attorney general's office is representing the DOT, and following that, will determine whether or not to countersue to recover legal costs. "(In the past,) if we believe a case is a frivolous piece of litigation, we have sought fees, although that's rare" he said. "I don't know what we'll do in this case." Robinson did not know how much the state had spent in legal fees. The county has paid $51,211.45 to Almond for representing it in the Houston Road case, said county spokesman David Price. Another invoice yet to be paid totals $12,714. Price said there has been no discussion about trying to recoup those costs by countersuing. Since the the case was filed, contractors have cleared trees for the widening project and now are finishing drainage work. Grading and widening could begin early next month, said Steve Vaughn, a DOT engineer. The project is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2001 and will cost close to $8 million. To contact Christopher Schwarzen, call 744-4213 or e-mail cschwarzen@macontel.com
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