Your Views

Gumlog now the Meth and Drug Capital

Gumlog, Ga., once considered to be the “Moonshine Capital” now should be called the “Meth and Drug Capital” of Georgia.

Our beautiful community of Gumlog has changed in the last 10 years and has steadily regressed and gone down hill fast, along with our neighborhood looks and people.

Once a quiet, remote section around beautiful lake settings, now a haven for criminals, drugs and criminal activity, human trafficking and drugs, loud boom-boom music from party houses and trailers set up to cater to the criminal hideout element of Gumlog.

The landowners and slum-lords now have lowered our living standards from quiet lake living to all-night parties and loud music 24 hours a day, by irresponsible land owners and rental properties that allow those same run-down conditions to continue to be a major battle in Gumlog.

After reaching out to the authorities and law enforcement agencies, not much or little has been done to correct or remove or resolve these problems.

Blighted houses, run-down make-shift housing, people living in tents and storage buildings running illegal power off gas generators seemingly all night, keeping you awake 24 hours a day.

Gumlog is a haven for those who know they can break the law, defy zoning laws, sell and distribute drugs to the surrounding areas around the lake and state park area.

The noise ordinance for Franklin County introduced by Derrick Turner as an improvement to our area has been shelved for nearly a year and no action taken by the board of commissioners or Franklin County lawyer Bubba who has drafted the law. I made a phone call and left a message but no return call.

County Marshal Freddy Akin is under-manned as well as under-budgeted and needs help to handle the battles in Gumlog.

The response time for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office is on average 20-30 minutes to an hour in emergency 911 calls, longer if they feel its not a priority call like noise issues, speeding, reckless driving, illegal drivers and no tags on illegal vehicles, most of them related to drug trafficking in our area.

The board of commissioners are painfully slow in making right decisions for unincorporated Gumlog.

With the lack of common sense to take positive action against illegal activity, drivers under the influence of alcohol or meth on 328, a major road connection for drug traffic.

Numerous attempts to DNR, Georgia State Patrol, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Appalachian Task Force has not stopped the meth, drug epidemic in our area.

Over flooding in illegal dwelling places, making Gumlog an eyesore community of Franklin County.

The board of commissioners are not addressing the real issues in Gumlog, and have ignored them for many years.

It’s time for action, not government red tape in Gumlog.

James Redmond

 

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