Wednesday, May 14, 2003

I sometimes see articles in The Citizen headlines with "Wynnmeade" featured prominently in the title line. Most such articles are very negative.

In order to give a more balanced perspective, I would like offer the following personal viewpoint, which is based on my experience of living in Wynnmeade for the past 30 years.

In short, we have no complaints whatsoever.

We have good neighbors and a quiet neighborhood. Our home is well built and has had far and away fewer problems than many of the pricier upscale houses built in recent times.

Yes, there have been some problems. And yes, strong action is quickly underway to fix things when they jump the track.

Wynnmeade has a legally incorporated homeowner's association, one of the few that is incorporated by the state of Georgia. We are not simply an ad hoc group of irate people who only meet when their ox is being gored as often happens in other areas. Our homeowner's association works very closely with the police and code enforcement officials.

The biggest problem I see can be attributed to people who don't even live here. People from Coweta have been caught bringing drugs into the subdivision. Landlords will sometimes rent to anyone who blows in with the first month's rent without checking them out. The association recently took one of these inept, lethargic landlords to court, and others are being looked at for similar action. If you buy a house in Wynnmeade, you'd best maintain your property, do not disturb neighbors or degrade property values, or you will end up in court.

The most recent headline in The Citizen regarding a turf war in Wynnmeade makes it sound like our whole subdivision is awash in gang wars, guns and knives. You really had to dig deep in the article to find that the gun was brought into Wynnmeade from Preston Chase subdivision by two brothers.

Funny, nothing in the headline mentioned Preston Chase was involved in the "turf war" even though their person was the star of the show that brought in the gun. The police were on top of this incident and had been watching for it for two weeks prior, and it was quickly taken care of.

I regularly walk the streets of Wynnmeade for exercise over past 10 years due to a heart condition, and it's churchyard quiet most all times of the day or night.

Home builders have remarked to me that this is the first subdivision they'd built in that they weren't robbed of tools, supplies, etc.

I regularly keep in touch with Peachtree City Police Chief Jim Murray on neighborhood issues. Several months back, Jim commented to me that there are many subdivisions in Peachtree that have far higher crime rates than Wynnmeade. (I believe the number was around a dozen at the time.)

In summary, the biggest problem with Wynnmeade is the attitudes of people who don't live here, those that "heard this or heard that" about our subdivision.

I'm not naive enough to think that a letter in a newspaper is going to change anyone's mind, but I thought it might be well to give a different perspective. It might cause someone a moment of pause or reflection, maybe.

John Dillahunt

Peachtree City, Ga.