Wednesday, November 12, 2003
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Wednesday, November 12, 2003 |
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Brown applauds Hwy. 74 widening By J. FRANK LYNCH When state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh broke the news last week that the widening of Ga. Highway 74 South would be moved up to begin in 2005, some of the county’s most well-connected movers and shakers appeared to be caught by surprise. If Steve Brown was among them, he won’t admit it. The Peachtree City mayor said Monday he was unfazed by Seabaugh’s announcement, made Friday morning at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center. “They’re just trying to make me look bad,” Brown said of his detractors at the chamber, the county commission and within Fayette’s legislative delegation, all of whom have butted heads with the mayor over road funding in recent months. Most blame him directly for delaying work on the TDK Boulevard Extension to Coweta County, a charge he denies. He also denies any truth to a rumor making the rounds that he was “kicked out” of Tom Coleman’s office when Coleman was still DOT commissioner, allegedy for trying to tell the state how to prioritize its projects. “We went to Tom Coleman way back with the plans for TDK and we talked about the Hwy. 54 Living Cities Initiative plan,” said Brown. “There’s never been any fights with them. In fact, I’ve been amazed that they’ve given us so much.” Indeed, if Brown is not held in high regard by state highway officials, it didn’t hurt the Hwy. 74 acceleration. According to Seabaugh, the $30 million project is set to begin in the 2006 budget year, which starts in summer 2005. Right of way acquisition for the northern leg from Hwy. 54 to Crosstown Road will begin in 90 days, he said. Work on the northern stretch will commence first, and construction from Crosstown Road to Hwy. 85 at Starr’s Mill will complete the project. “Hwy. 74 has been moved up to the most aggressive schedule there is,” Seabaugh said Friday, crediting the work of state representatives John Yates, John Lunsford and Lynn Westmoreland, along with Fayette County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn, in helping make the project a priority. The senator said Sam Wellborn, the Department of Transportation board member who represents Fayette County, and DOT Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl also played a major role in speeding up the project. There was no mention of Brown, who was in attendance. But the mayor echoed Seabaugh’s opinion that the expanded highway will have a near immediate effect on efforts to recruit new industry, since Hwy. 74 is the main truck route to the interstates, airport and Atlanta. “Now that we can get people in and out like we need to,” said Seabaugh. Brown had made the expansion of Hwy. 74 through the city’s industrial section a goal since taking office two years ago, insisting that a bigger roadway was necessary before the city could absorb any industry. That position is blamed for delaying the extension of TDK Boulevard into Coweta County, a road project that Brown has never supported and chamber officials say he intentionally has stalled. This week, county officials were to meet with state officials to hammer out the details on funding for the road, and Coweta County is expected to start work on its section of TDK any day now. Combined with Seabaugh’s news, Brown’s days of naysaying TDK are over. “Philosophically, I’ve never been opposed to TDK,” he said Monday. “We were in a tight budget year last year and without the widening of 74, the most relief TDK is going to bring us is two to three years. Is traffic relief really worth risking other current budget needs?” His beef now, said Brown, is that the city isn’t getting its fair shake in the county’s proposed $400 million transportation plan, a position that clearly irritated officials from other jurisdictions who gathered in late October to consider the proposal. Brown said Dunn “is trying to say that the money they’ve spent on TDK already is the reason why Peachtree City is not getting its share of road funds. But I didn’t want TDK extended. And now he wants my money to take care of Fayetteville.” While the top three priorities on the county’s transportation wish list involve projects to relieve congestion in downtown Fayetteville, the next two are exclusive to Peachtree City. Number 4 on the list is a reconfiguration of the Hwy. 54-Hwy. 74 intersection that would create non-stop through-lanes for southbound traffic, estimated to cost $3.5 million. That bold attempt to eliminate traffic tie-ups at the intersection won’t be included in the widening project announced by Seabaugh, however. Brown said his efforts to open discussion on Hwy.74’s future by bringing together representatives of each of the jurisdictions that lay claim to a stretch of the highway will continue. In fact, early this week letters went out to nearby cities not already on board with the study group asking them for input. Union City, Sharpsburg, Fayetteville,
Haralson and others are being asked to join the study, said Brown. A meeting
to update the group on progress, including the latest news, will be held
before the end of the year, he said.
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