Residents press Whitfield County for details after Prater’s Mill barn demolition and planned dam work

Several Whitfield County residents urged the Board of Commissioners on Sept. 8 for more transparency and information about recent work at Prater’s Mill, including the demolition of a barn and plans for the mill’s dam and water flow.

Tom Hillford, 215 Oak Street, asked the board to publish the inspection reports and the decision-making record regarding the barn’s demolition and said some cleaning products used in county buildings raised health concerns. Multiple residents who spoke later at the meeting requested to see any structural or engineering reports and asked what happened to historically valuable barn wood removed during demolition.

Dorinda Young, a frequent visitor to Prater’s Mill, asked whether the county planned to restore water flow over the dam. A county official (responding during public comment) said the county must work with federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and that the current plan is to preserve the dam structure but not to restore it as a working grist mill. “The dam is going to be preserved, but it is not going to be a working grist mill,” the county official said on the record, adding that federal and state policy favors removing or altering small dams because of safety and ecological concerns. The official also said internal county staff performed the barn demolition and that the county had checked with the donors of the barn materials, who “did not want it back.”

Public commenters repeatedly asked for the county to publish the underlying engineering and inspection reports that led to the demolition decision and to explain the long-term plan for the mill site. Several residents said the fenced-off appearance of the site has lasted more than a year and expressed concern about the mill’s appearance ahead of the upcoming Prater’s Mill Fair.

Other public commenters suggested alternatives to a water-driven mill if water flow cannot be restored. Paul Davis suggested installing an electric motor or diesel engine to drive the mill’s grinding mechanism if water could not be routed back over the turbine.

The board did not take a related vote at the Sept. 8 meeting. Commissioners and staff repeatedly told speakers that some aspects of the mill project require coordination with state and federal agencies and that portions of the work are governed by those external policies.

Ending: Residents asked the county to release inspection and engineering reports publicly; the board’s staff said some work is subject to federal/state review and that they would provide as much information as allowed while noting the county’s obligations to those external agencies.