Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Without trying to "beat a dead horse," I would like to respond to Mr. Bartlett's letter in the Feb. 21 issue of The Citizen.

First off, I appreciated Mr. Bartlett's "toned-down" attitude in this latest letter of his, absent most of the name-calling and put-downs. As a fellow resident of Tyrone, I'm sure that we share the same desire for our community to remain a place we enjoy calling "home."

Where we differ, however, is in our interpretation of the town government's job in managing our fair town. As I mentioned in my last response to Mr. Bartlett, our community, via a town-wide poll, clearly expressed our desires for the direction the governing body should take.

Again, the residents of Tyrone oppose large-scale development of a commercial-industrial-"big-box" nature. Does this mean we oppose the building of more homes for more folks to move into? Certainly not. In fact, the residents of my subdivision banded together to fight the planned access to a large subdivision (directly behind my house, I might add), but not the homes themselves.

Development of this nature is expected. We only hope to encourage our city leaders to responsibly manage this development in a way that not only follows the land use plan, but impacts our town in a positive way.

It would be silly to think that real estate values in Tyrone should mirror exactly the values in Peachtree City. Face it, we don't have all of the amenities that Peachtree City offers. But if we wanted all that Peachtree City has to offer (several golf courses, all the cart paths, and the assortment of shopping and dining establishments), wouldn't we have all moved into Peachtree City?

I suggest that those who have selected Tyrone as their home town have done so for good reason. Tyrone has not, and should not, suffered from an "inferiority complex" to its neighbor to the south. The residents have made it clear that we don't want to be "Peachtree City Number Two".

We have heard much about the term "mandate" in recent political events. Well, our town leaders have clearly been given a mandate by its residents. While I respect Mr. Bartlett's opinion, I would hope he would respect the obvious wishes of the majority of Tyrone's residents, and, in doing so, respect the fact that Mayor Lee and the town council have done a marvelous job in staying focused on this mandate. While Mr. Bartlett calls this form of governing "dumb as dirt" and "dismal local government," I call it "democracy."

While Mr. Bartlett is welcome to express his opinion, I'd ask that he show respect for a group of elected city leaders with the backbone to respect the wishes of their constituents. After 11 years of living in a place he calls not "worth keeping," and "hoping that something will change" and that "someday it may be a good place to live," I have to admire his patience. (But isn't it kind of sad, too?)

These "changes" he hopes for, however, are a long time coming, if at all. Let's just say, "Don't hold your breath." Mr. Bartlett, you get the moving boxes, and I'll call the pizza place.

Dave Buck

Tyrone

Four-Bucks@juno.com

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