MILTON, Ga. — Several major road improvement projects around metro Atlanta are on hold for the foreseeable future.
The Georgia Department of Transportation halted them after it learned it didn’t really own the property the projects were on.
GDOT told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot that it has safeguards in place to prevent financial fraud, but it says it doesn’t appear there was any in this case.
GDOT says its own investigation revealed one of its employees faked paperwork to make it look like the state owned the land on which they were making road improvements, but in reality, they didn’t.
We flew NewsDrone 2 up over Dara McMillan’s home of nearly six years.
As part of its road improvement project along State Route 9 in Milton, GDOT removed many of the trees that blocked her home from the noise.
“It is so loud. It’s so disruptive. It’s very disturbing even inside the house,” McMillan said.
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GDOT thought it owned the property because one of its right-of-way acquisition specialists Felicia Pennyman filed the legal paperwork saying she had.
But after getting neighbor complaints, GDOT opened an investigation two weeks ago and now says Pennyman committed massive fraud, though they’re still not sure why. It doesn’t appear she did it for any financial gain.
GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale says GDOT immediately fired her, and their investigation continues.
“As soon as we discovered this, we had taken swift action in an investigation working throughout policy and procedures to make sure this cannot happen again,” Dale said.
So this means all the roadwork along SR 9 will have to stop because GDOT didn’t actually acquire the land on either side, and that could delay the road project up to three years -- maybe more.
“Oh my gosh. Atrocious. Terrible,” McMillan said.
She told Elliot she couldn’t believe GDOT cut down all the trees around her home because of fraud by one of their own.
She wants the agency to fix it.
“Put this back the way it was. If that can’t happen, at least plant some trees, give us a little bit more privacy, and bring us back to what we had, a serene living environment,” McMillan said.
Elliot went by Pennyman’s home on Tuesday to comment on this story, but no one answered the door.
She’s not facing any criminal charges for now, but this case is now being investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the Inspector General.
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