By: Robin Ford Wallace, Staff Reporter

As Dade County considers an ordinance to require developers to put up performance bonds guaranteeing their promises, Marion County, its next-door neighbor in Tennessee, is glad it has one. Right now, Marion is in the process of calling in such a bond on the Southern Group, the company currently developing Johnson’s Crook in Dade, for a road the developer failed to finish.

“The deadline for completion of those improvements comes up in September, and the road’s not complete,” said Marion County Attorney Billy Gouger in a telephone interview Friday. “The planning commission voted last week to notify the bonding company that they were going to make a claim on this bond.” 

This is not the first time Southern Group has been at loggerheads with Marion, its home county. The road at issue is in what Gouger calls an “after-the-fact” subdivision, said Gouger – meaning one that the county found out about only after it had been developed and lots sold in defiance of county regulations. 

“Once the county found out about it, the county refused to issue building permits in the development until that forced the issue,” said Gouger. “So they had to then bring that development into compliance with subdivision regulations, and one of the requirements of the regulations was the bond for the road.”

Gouger would not comment on talks underway between Marion and the Southern Group about the Cumberlands at Sewanee, another subdivision in the county. The county sued the developer in late 2004 over similar issues, as reported in a previous Sentinel article. But neither would he deny that Southern Group has been at times a problem for the county. “The public records speak for themselves on that,” he said.

Josh Dobson of Southern Group, contacted Monday for reaction, said his company, consisting of himself, his father, Thomas, and brother-in-law, Travis Shields, planned to renew the bond for another year.

Dobson spoke on his cell phone – he’s been busy recently as his father, 62, suffered a stroke a few days ago.  The elder Dobson was to be released from Erlanger later in the day, said his son.