Wednesday, September 18, 2002

In the recently published article on the Peachtree City budget, Peachtree City Mayor Brown reported that he was interested in a referendum to fund golf cart trail repairs.

Subsequently, The Citizen published a letter to the editor where a gentleman expressed his concerns about golf cart trail repairs. It is clear from the letter to the editor that the author, like many people who have read the statements by the mayor, believes that to one degree or another that the city budget is devoid of funding for cart path improvements.

Additionally, there is a misperception that previous councils and staff have been remiss in dealing with this area of managing the city. Once again your readers have been misled. For the sake of clarification, here are the facts from City Hall.

The city staff maintains a periodically updated list of cart path repair items. This list is prioritized based on the severity of the repairs. This list is available from City Hall and gives a great deal of information about the size and cost of repairs as well as where each falls on the priority list.

This process is not new. Original funding for next year's repairs was $115,000. From the mayor's statements many folks have been led to believe that the entire funding was cut. In fact only $15,000 was cut, leaving $100,000 in FY2003 for cart path repairs.

The mayor's misleading statements could be seen for what they were when he added that the referendum would include bridges and culverts.

It is obvious that the mayor is intent on his Ga. Highway 54 West agenda regardless of the budgetary crisis and regardless of the tax implications. While these projects have merit and are part of a completed Peachtree City, his timing could not be worse.

Do not be misled into believing that there is no money for cart path repairs or that the staff or prior councils have not been doing their jobs. This, like the rest of the mayor's agenda since taking office, is about Hwy. 54 West.

Gary Rower

Peachtree City

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