HANCOCK COUNTY, Ga. — A battle between a Central Georgia railroad and some neighbors is picking up steam.
The Sandersville Railroad Company filed an amended petition asking the state to allow them to take more land in Washington and Hancock counties.
Some neighbors on Shoals Road say that the railroad company has been wanting to build tracks on their property since last year.
This land has been in the Smith family for 97 years, but Mark and Janet Smith have been worried for the past year.
“Yeah, that could be taken away and not just us, but from everybody who lives down through here,” Mark said.
Last year, the couple says they got a letter from the Sandersville Railroad Company.
“I'm sending you this letter because some of your property will be required for the new project,” Janet reads from the letter. “Isn’t that crazy? He didn’t say he was gonna pay us anything. He’s gonna take the land.”
The company wants the land to build a railroad that'll serve the Hanson Quarry down the road. The route would have passed right through Smiths' backyard.
“We have two ponds. One belongs to my brother. The train was gonna come between those two ponds and go through the field right next to our house,” Mark said. “We would have been able to see it from our house, hear it from our house. It would've been right there on top of us.”
They said over a dozen neighbors would be affected too and voiced their concerns last year at a meeting with the railroad.
President of the Sandersville Railroad Company, Ben Tarbutton, says they heard people and moved the route. It no longer runs through the Smith’s property.
“Push it further North, even further away from the homes,” Tarbutton said. “In a lot of cases, we're almost a half mile from the homes."
However, they say they still want to build the 4.5 mile rail spur, and they need 18 parcels of land to do it.
“For the landowners that we are going through, as a percentage of the total land that they own, [it] is a very small amount,” Tarbutton says. “We're gonna be able to provide substantial annual economic impact, and all the while, we’re gonna be able to do it in an environmentally friendly manner."
Tarbutton said that their project could also help with traffic.
"We’re taking 150 trucks off the road which is gonna save on wear and tear on county roads [and] state roads," he said.
Tarbutton says the train would take one round trip a day, the dirt berms would help reduce the noise and the railroad would bring a dozen jobs.
“A lot of times, we don’t get a call for prospects, and so here’s an opportunity to grow the job prospects in Hancock County,” Tarbutton said.
Tarbutton says while some folks have agreed to sell their land, the railroad has asked the state for permission to take the land in case they can't agree on the sales.
They're asking the government to use eminent domain, which is a legal process where governments can force a person to sell their land to them for a project that will benefit the community.
The government can also use eminent domain to aid private projects that will benefit the community, too.
However, the Smiths say that they still aren't sold on the project's benefits.
“He doesn't live here at all,” Janet said. "They don't hear the noise, they don't smell the asphalt and the emissions from the truck."
The Smiths say they also do not believe the new railroad will grow the economy.
“Our educational system, our kids over there," Janet said. "They don’t have new band equipment, things that they need. That quarry up there gives us nothing back."
They also have questions about the number of jobs the project would create.
“How many people can drive a train?" Janet said. "They’re gonna give our men in the county, and women, they’re gonna let them dig the rail– lay down the track. So, they have a job for a year in the hot sun and the cold, but once the tracks are laid– because that’s what our people are used to doing, hard labor– after that’s done, where’s the jobs?”
Tarbutton says their absolute last resort is taking the land against the owners' consent. He says they want to come to an agreement, but landowners say they will continue to fight back.