By AMY RILEY
One Citizen's Perspective

Talk of annexing property west of Ga. Highway 74 to create a fifth Peachtree City village has spanned beyond our little town, and become a safety matter and one heck of a dilemma for the Fayette County school system. This is one of those times when I would imagine a school system would like to nestle down for a long nap and not come out until the coast was clear, but the cat is already out of the bag.

For Debbie Condon, chairwoman of the Fayette County Board of Education, the question of annexation hinges on the developers' willingness to donate land for an elementary school and build a connector road and overpass to bridge the West Village with the rest of Peachtree City, eliminating grade-level rail crossings for school buses transporting children.

Condon stated that she “want[s] a bridge, the connector road, and a school site with connections to sewer, because I don't want to be in the sewer business. If there were any other way achieve that, other than annexing the property, then I would say do it,” added Condon.

Mike Satterfield, Director of Facilities Services for the Fayette school system, indicated that even with the “no annexation” option, an additional school will be needed to accommodate the students who would move in under the current land use plan, and for those expected to move in to other already permitted sites. The most critical issue for the school system then becomes student safety.

Jerry Whitaker, vocational/land acquisition coordinator for Fayette schools, visited both grade-level rail crossings and found both potentially dangerous for busloads of school children.

The one on old Hwy. 74, north of its intersection with the four-lane Hwy. 74, has a limited sight distance, which is a disaster in the making, and the crossing by the cable company has a short distance in which to navigate and/or make corrections if needed to avoid an accident.

Mr. Whitaker indicated that we do have grade-level crossings in a few areas of Fayette over which school buses must cross, but none as potentially dangerous as those in the proposed West Village site.

The quandary for the school system is the need to make the best of the situation in terms of safety and cost, while at the same time remaining politically unblemished by a not-so-popular annexation vote which may prove a public relations quagmire the next time the school system finds itself asking the community for money to fund construction needs.

A really interesting twist in all of this is that there may exist another funding source for the bridge to span the rail crossing, according to David Millen, Georgia Department of Transportation pre-construction engineer for District 3, which includes Fayette.

For an area that the DOT clearly has an interest in, “it would absolutely be appropriate that DOT personnel from the intermodal, planning, and maybe even enhancement offices begin to work with Peachtree City along the 74 corridor,” Millen said.

The commuter rail destined for Fayette County will run parallel to Hwy. 74 on the existing CSX rails. Though specific station locations have not been identified, there will be stops in Tyrone, Peachtree City and Senoia, which will be the end of the line, slated for completion by 2009.

According to Millen, if safety is a concern (and with nearby residential development I would say that is a given), there would be a variety of avenues to pursue for funding of an overpass, most at the federal level.

Millen is more than willing to participate in the local discussions, and believes his office should be involved. We have a little more homework to do.

Undoubtedly in terms of public perception, it would be better for the school system to distance itself from the local politics of an annexation discussion, but faced with the seemingly inevitable, Debbie Condon is banking on getting the most bang for the buck.

Though the school system has no official stance on the annexation, clearly they can't sit back and pretend that this decision has no impact on our schools. Let's just hope that the bang doesn't backfire.

The same Peachtree City voters who carried the SPLOST vote in every city precinct are many of the same voters who do not favor high density growth and development for the West Village.

Mrs. Condon is critical of those who want “to close the door [on future residents] now that they're here,” yet many residents came here because of its relatively undeveloped character. That is what they want to protect.

We were sold on the notion of “build out.” I hope we weren't sold a bill of goods.

[Your comments are welcome at ARileyFreePress@aol.com.]

Back to Opinion Home Page | Back to the top of the page