RANKIN COUNTY, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Lake owner Tommy Thrash and lake residents have been waiting on the county to make repairs to this giant slide, but now they say the county has told them to fix it themselves.
"The county says the dam belongs to me. I own the lake and I own land adjoining it but they say the six inches of asphalt on top of it belongs to the county," said Thrash. "The county needs to take responsibility, just in 2009 they hauled in approximately 7 thousand cubic yards of fill material and put it on the backside of this dam. We see now one third of it and re-poured it but now the county is saying they don't own the dam. If they don't own the dam, why did they repair it."
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has ordered Thrash to lower the lake level until the slide is repaired, which as you can see has completely ruined any plans for lake recreation for the nearly 25 homeowners living there.
"I bought a lake house without a lake I have boat docks I can't use, decks I cant use, windows for the view in my house and I can't use them," said resident Larry Caraway."
Residents say they believe the dumping of old asphalt on the dam, and the use of pesticides contributed to causing the slide. Whatever the case may by, they say they can't understand why the county would maintain a dam, then all of a sudden stop.
"It's a personal vendetta against me because a lot of it I didn't support any of the supervisors this year, in fact I helped some of the other politicians that were running against them," says Thrash.
We were unable to contact Rankin County District Three Supervisor Greg Wilcox for comment.
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