Georgia residents file suit amid Bainbridge monkey-breeding stir

As the uproar continues over the prospect of a 30,000-monkey breeding facility being built in their county, a group of southwest Georgia residents has filed a lawsuit contending that government officials operated in secret and didn’t follow open meetings laws.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Decatur County Superior Court, names as defendants the county’s taxing entities, including the city of Bainbridge, the school district and board of education, county commissioners and tax assessors.

The lawsuit came two days after the company behind the proposed facility, Safer Human Medicine, sought a preliminary injunction against the county commission, which voted to rescind its offer granting the company nearly $60 million in tax breaks and other incentives.

Controversy over the estimated $400 million project has erupted in recent weeks as details of the proposed operation emerged. Residents are concerned about the facility’s impact on the environment and property values, as well as the possible bad publicity it could generate. The county along the Flint River markets itself as an outdoors haven.

Safer Human Medicine has suggested the project would bring more than 260 jobs and said the offspring of the macaque monkeys bred there would be shipped elsewhere for use in research.

On Monday, county commission chair Pete Stephens declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. A call seeking comment from the Bainbridge city manager’s office was not immediately returned.

One of the lawsuit’s four plaintiffs, Chad Dollar, spoke at a Bainbridge City Council meeting in mid-January. He said he lives about 400 yards from an industrial park where the facility would be built.

Dollar said he was concerned his property value would suffer and was, in general, worried about the facility’s effect on the area.

“I just got a real bad feeling about it,” he said.