On Monday, the Carroll County Board of Education voted to refuse ownership of a 5-acre tract in Roopville that the Carroll County Board of Commissioners had originally voted to donate to a local Baptist church. Because the deed for the property, which consists mainly of a baseball field, gave the school board the first right of refusal, the Board of Commissioners’ August vote to donate the property to Holy Ground Baptist Church was premature. Now that the School Board has declined the property, it will formally go to the church, although a group of concerned Roopville citizens is hoping to block the property transfer, citing the belief that the county’s donation of property free of charge to a religious organization violates the Georgia Constitution.

According to a letter sent to county schools Superintendent John Zauner from the Newnan law firm Rosenzweig, Jones, Horne & Griffis, the county’s decision to donate the property to the church violated two separate articles of the Georgia Constitution – Article 3, Section 6 and Article 1, Section 2.

Based on legal precedent, Article 3, Section 6 restricts county governments from granting “any donation or gratuity.”

The Constitution expressly limits the General Assembly from authorizing land donations, but the state Supreme Court case of Grand Lodge of Georgia, Independent Order of Fellows v. City of Thomasville, establishes that the same limits on donations extend to city and county governments.

In the past, County Attorney Cynthia Daley has justified the Board of Commissioners’ decision using the Georgia Supreme Court case Swanberg v. City of Tybee Island. In that case, the court held that a gift by Chatham County of land to a marine rescue group was not a gratuity because the rescue of any animal was seen as a benefit to all citizens of that county.

Yet, according to the letter, “the Church, even if allowing the public to enter the property, will be using the land to further its mission and not to promote the welfare or safety of the community,” rendering the exception inapplicable in this instance.

The letter goes on to argue that the donation would further violate Article 1, Section 2 of the state Constitution, as it prevents area governments from using public funds to aid any religious institution. In this case, the letter reads, “the land which is being given to the Church will be used to further and promote the secular missions of the Church ... [and] even were the Church to allow the public access to the property it would be in benefit of the Church’s mission and this is prohibited by the Georgia Constitution.”

The letter also argues that the donation would violate the Official Code of Georgia Annotated as it mandates how the county can dispose of property. The letter says that county real estate cannot be disposed of except after a three-week advertisement period and a formal bidding process. In this case, no such process was enacted.

Instead, said Kirby Hamil, head of the Concerned Citizens of the Roopville Community, the group that requested the services of the Newnan law firm, the land deal was the result of political manipulation on behalf of Commission Chairman Bill Chappell and Commissioner John Wilson. Hamil said that because Wilson’s first cousin is an official at Holy Ground, he has been working to give the church the property since early this spring. Yet, members of the Board of Commissioners say they first found out about Wilson’s intention when the item appeared on the agenda for the August meeting, only days before the meeting itself.

Wilson said that’s simply not the case. The county has been in talks with the church for years now over the property, he said, going back to before he was even in office. He said any assertion that he pushed the deal through because of his family ties to the church is false.

“It wasn’t anything that has to do with it. I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “It was going on before I was ever elected, and once I got elected, people with the church called and talked to me, and that’s when it really got brought up again.”

Chappell did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Beyond who had first claim to the property, there have been further questions as to where the most recent deed of ownership actually is.

The most up-to-date known document detailing the sale history of the property goes back to 1988. In that year, the property was given to the Roopville Youth Athletic Association, a predecessor to the present-day athletics booster club, from the Roopville Board of Education. Prior to that, the field belonged to what was Roopville High School.

In 2002, the property went to the county, a product of the Carroll County Recreation Department’s move to consolidate the youth athletic associations in Roopville, Whitesburg and Hulett. Less than two years later, the county stopped using the field for games, moving all sports to the existing recreation complex on Newnan Road.

In the meantime, the deed has either failed to be updated or has been lost in the transition.

Because of the hotly contested issues between the county, the church and Roopville residents, and the ambiguity that still surrounds the property, said School Board member Mike Huckeba, the School Board voted on Monday to refuse the property for the simple reason that it didn’t want to get involved in the mess.

“We washed our hands of it,” he said. “We have enough problems to worry about than to spend time worrying about 5 acres of land. We’ve got enough to handle.”