Wednesday, November 15, 2000

Anyone driving home from Coweta County the evening of the city council meeting got a taste of what traffic is going to be like if the Home Depot and Wal-Mart get built. I used to look with pity at the people commuting east in the morning on Ga. Highway 54. Now I know what they are faced with, as the traffic jam caused by the city council meeting backed up all the way to Doc Fisher Road.

Perhaps what we need is a nonbinding public referendum to allow the citizens of our city to cast their vote. I think this expense would be a valid use of city funds, and might be an escape route for Bob Lenox. If the turnout is a plurality of the registered voters in Peachtree City, and a majority votes for the stores, so be it. If the majority votes against (as I feel certain an overwhelming number would) then Bob and the others afraid of a law suit could plead a case to Wal-Mart and Home Depot that it would not be in their best interests to build where they are not wanted, whether or not they legally can.

At any rate, I think we should all participate in a letter-writing campaign to the CEOs of those businesses, to let them know that they have chosen an unpopular location to build and will not have community support. Those CEOs may not even be aware of the issues that the developers are confronting their companies with.

Please let all of us in Peachtree City know the names and addresses of the right people to send our message to. Just putting letters in the local paper won't get the message to the people who can reverse the course of this unpopular decision, and it is obvious that our elected representatives have lost sight of their constituents' views.

I am sure Bob and company are already considering what they will be occupying their spare time with after the next mayoral election.

Ed Eskew

Peachtree City

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