Wednesday, October 18, 2000

We moved to Ebenezer Church Road back in the '60s to a rural area to raise our children. They had chickens, horses and five acres to play on. The years passed and we no longer had the willpower to keep up five acres. Our neighbor that joined us had 2.5 acres so we figured that we would have no problem rezoning our land. We had a contract to sell the 2.5 for $40,000. We went before rezoning and people came out of the woodwork to complain about the rezoning. The man who wanted to buy the property said we had some of the nastiest neighbors he had ever met.

My point, where were all of you when land out here was sold to a church from Peachtree City? The profile of this neighborhood had forever been changed. The land was zoned AR, and yet we have no chance to give an opinion on a church being built out here one block down from another one. The land was clear-cut, a pecan orchard gone forever. The county came in and ran a water line to the church. No one on our road has county water, what about a sewer connection? Our neighbor out here had the county on his back when all he wanted to do was pump out his septic tank; the man who came to pump the tank brought the county with him and the neighbor had to put in a new septic line!

The church will use a lot of water and have a lot of sewage on land that is zoned AR? What about the environment out here, one little septic tank for one household, so what about the sewage from a church? We have dump trucks running the roads that our tax money paid for, the church is tax exempt, so who pays for the sewer, and water lines that ran to the church? The taxpayers!

The people on this road were not and have never been offered any sewer lines, county water, or natural gas. Please explain to me the feasibility of one building having county water, and sewer and the rest of the road with no access to either?

So where were all you do-gooders when all this happened? We have a mass of trailers being glued together out here to form a rural building, with no tax revenue to the county. This is a rural, AR area. What about the value of our homes that is forever gone? The roads being torn up each Sunday with traffic from Peachtree City. Whey didn't they build in Peachtree City? I'll tell you why, Peachtree City would never allow this to happen.

Last Sunday morning the peace and quiet of this neighborhood was awakened by the sound of large machinery running on Sunday Sunday, did you understand a church is being built on Sunday, and the church that is on adjoining property was trying to hold services over the sound of large machinery running.

So where were all you nasty, nasty people that pack the commissioners meeting each month to protest when someone like us who have paid taxes for years want to rezone? You sit back and let the whole profile of this neighborhood go down the drain from a non-tax paying organization to come in and destroy the peace and serenity of our neighborhood.

One more thing before I quit for the day. Ebenezer Church Road is not the Peachtree City to Fayetteville autobahn. The speed limit out here is 45 m.p.h., and those two yellow solid lines in the middle of the road mean that this is a no passing zone. The fact that you are running late from your Peachtree City home doesn't automatically give you the right to speed through our neighborhood.

For those of you who do not know me and automatically decided that I am antichurch, please rest assured that despite my strong opinions, I have never lost Jesus. I joined the Methodist Church, on my own, no parents involved, when I was 12 years old.

The Fayette County Commission needs to address the issue of churches in neighborhoods, and give the people of Fayette a choice of what churches come to Fayette. If not, we have an armed camp of people here who do not recognize any of the laws of the U.S.A.

Legay Saul

Fayette

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