Patti Dozier
THOMASVILLE — The developer of a giant bog has not decided whether he will abide by Thomas County commissioners’ Tuesday vote.
Commissioners voted 5-3 to deny Phillip Lewis’ request for a special-event permit for an April 17 truck-bogging being advertised in a national magazine.
Commissioner Josh Herring told Lewis the truck-bogging activity is clearly in violation of the agriculturally zoned area in which the events take place. Five or six bogs are scheduled this year.
Lewis moved to Thomas County from Tampa, Fla., five years ago and purchased 152 acres at the intersection of Highway 33 and Ione Road outside Pavo.
“This thing has grown to a pretty big deal,” Lewis said.
As many as 1,100 people from as far away as Louisiana and Miami, Fla., and 100 to 150 trucks have participated in some of the events where Lewis installed a well and floods the bogging site.
“I don’t see where the problem is,” Lewis said.
In asking for the special permit for April, Lewis told the board he would return five or six times a year to request permission to conduct similar events.
Commissioner Louis Rehberg said the bogging had begun as a “back-yard hobby.” “Sometime during the year, it became a business. You charged admission,” Rehberg told Lewis, who has spent $50,000 cultivating the bog site.
Johnny Reichert, county building, planning and zoning official, served Lewis with a cease-and-desist notice that pointed out the enterprise was not allowed on property zoned for agriculture. Reichert said commercial-general zoning would be required, but that would constitute spot zoning.
“If Mr. Lewis comes back to me, I’m going to deny it,” Reichert told commissioners.
“Is this a wetlands area?” asked commission Chairman Mary Jo Beverly. EPA (Georgia Environmental Protection Agency) looked at the site “and left with no problem,” Lewis responded.
Lewis told commissioners that off-duty emergency medical service personnel and Thomas County deputies attend bogging events.
“I think you’ve started a business that is truly not legal,” commission Vice Chairman Elaine Mays told Lewis.
“It’s not the kind of business anticipated in our planning,” interjected Commissioner Claud Davis.
Bruce Warren, county attorney, told commissioners Lewis’ use of the land is not within zoning guidelines. Commissioners have the power to stop the events, he added.
Thomas County Sheriff Carlton Powell, whose grandson has attended bogging events, addressed commissioners on behalf of Lewis.
Lewis is in a predicament he might have put himself in, said the sheriff, adding that he knows of only two complaints about the activity.
The sheriff said he believes one should stand up for what they believe in, even if they stand alone.
“Older people don’t like it. The younger people do,” Powell said.
The sheriff told commissioners they were smarter than he is. “That’s why y’all are commissioners, and I’m the sheriff,” he told the board.
Herring told Lewis that if the April 17 event were allowed, it would be the only one.
“This is a real dilemma. You have obviously spent a lot of money to operate a big business,” Beverly said to Lewis, who previously was in the bucking-bull business.
Herring said he was OK with a one-time permit, to which Lewis responded, “I can’t promise you that.” Herring bristled at Lewis’ comment.
Lewis continued to insist that the activity would cease after the April event, and he would return to the board about future bogging activity.
Commissioners told Lewis he would not get another chance to conduct the events.
Commissioner Ken Hickey made a motion to allow the one-time event in April. Herring provided the second. Hickey, Herring and Commissioner Moses Gross voted for the motion. The other five commissioners cast nay votes.
“There will not be an event on the 17th,” Beverly told Lewis.
Outside the meeting, the Times-Enterprise asked Lewis if he will conduct the April 17 bogging event.
“I don’t know at this time,” Lewis said, adding that he plans to hire a lawyer.
Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820.
