- During Tuesday night’s county commissioner’s meeting, the board admitted to an error that caused them to reevaluate their decision.
- A public records request required the county lawyer to investigate if neighbors were properly notified of a meeting on December 11.
- The county lawyer found that only the city of Bainbridge properly notified residents of the meeting. These findings led the commission to decide to pause the deal.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Neighbors rejoice after county commissioners agree to halt a strongly opposed primate center coming to the city.
The commission explains just what crucial detail caused the project to lose its support.
For weeks I've been following the backlash
of a strongly opposed primate center coming to Bainbridge.
During Tuesday night’s county commissioner’s meeting, the board admitted to an error that caused them to reevaluate their decision.
“When our lawyer went in to do the open records request, he discovered that we did not post or notify of the meeting," Pete Stephens, Board chair Decatur County Commissioner said.
Stephens is talking about a public records request that required the county lawyer to verify if neighbors were properly notified of a meeting on December 11.
This meeting was where the information about the primate project was openly discussed for the first time in public.
After ABC 27 first reported on the controversy the primate center garnered both state and national attention.
Stephens said since the residents within the community were not notified the commission decided to pause the deal.
“That’s a huge relief," Yvena Merritt, Attapulgus resident said. "Hopefully, they will use this time to really assess this company and its background.”
Neighbors applaud the news of the commissioners' decision and honesty but activists tell me more needs to be done to stop the project altogether.
“We’re encouraging the commissioners and the city to really look back at that [the bond] and really try to back away from this by backing away from the project entirely," Amy Meyer, manager of primate experimentation campaigns at PETA said
Despite a pause in proceedings neighbors and activists said they have no plans of stopping when it comes to pushing against a project they say jeopardizes their home.
Stephens told me the community will get an update in February.
