Wednesday, March 17, 2004
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Wednesday, March 17, 2004 |
| Residents object to Mann Road upgrade By JOHN THOMPSON The Fayette County Commission got another hint last week of more opposition to its SPLOST proposal for solving the county’s transportation needs. This time, instead of getting an earful from Peachtree City’s mayor, the commissioners got it from a residents group in the northern part of the county. Carrie Klarl addressed the commission during the public comment portion of the meeting. Klarl lives on Mann Road in Tyrone and said a number of residents are concerned about the county’s proposal to extend Sandy Creek Road to Mann Road. “It is hard to believe that you could find anyone in Fayette County, besides perhaps local officials, who would name the extension of Sandy Creek Road as the fourth most important road project in the county,” she said. Klarl dismissed the idea the road extension would help Fayette’s commuters. “The only people this road would serve would be those traveling from north Fayette County to Coweta County. This group of commuters would not seem large enough to warrant a costly extension of Sandy Creek Road,” she said. She slammed the proposal as a “poor solution” to help east-west traffic move through the northern part of the county. Instead of extending Sandy Creek, Klarl suggested the county look at improving existing roads such as Tyrone-Palmetto Road. The widening of the road is included in the county’s transportation plan, and Klarl felt that project should receive a higher priority. She also said the Sandy Creek Road extension would “adversely impact the surrounding property owners.” “Areas of Mann Road are completely covered by a canopy of trees during the summer months, many of which are extremely old. Because of the close proximity of these beautiful specimen trees to the road, most would be lost,” she said. Klarl asked that the project be removed from the transportation plan before the SPLOST proposal is placed on the November ballot. If the county chooses not to, she said the residents would vote against SPLOST and encourage other residents to also vote no. After the meeting, Commission Chairman Greg Dunn said the extension was put into the program because the town of Tyrone wanted the road routed to Mann Road. Dunn said he would not have a problem with changing the proposal, but the request came from Tyrone.
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