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No more TDK funds from PTC, says Mayor Brown

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

and JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown says the city won’t spend any more money on engineering costs for the extension of TDK Boulevard into Coweta County, a project he vehemently opposes.

Fayette County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn said Wednesday afternoon that Brown was trying to undermine the stalled road project.

The city is responsible for funding engineering costs under a contract agreed to by the city council and the Fayette County Board of Commissioners. The county is responsible for construction of the project.

“We’re going to stick to our end of the contract,” Dunn added.

Brown said he is not responsible for the cost overruns due to the new engineering required because the engineering firm, URS, failed to contact the Federal Aviation Administration about the road’s proximity to Falcon Field Airport.

The FAA subsequently complained about the plans for the project, saying the road intruded into the airport’s runway safety area. That necessitated a trip back to the drawing board, which Brown says he won’t pay.

Brown said the city has already spent about $20,000 more than the initial $200,000 he committed to in a meeting with state legislators Mitch Seabaugh and Lynn Westmoreland. Although the contract with the county requires the city to pay for the engineering costs, Brown said the agreement with Seabaugh and Westmoreland “was tied into” the contract.

“I lived up to my end of the bargain and paid everything I said I’d pay,” Brown said.

Also, the city spent another $350,000 towards TDK engineering costs under the Lenox administration, Brown said.

Brown also alluded to a sentiment on the Peachtree City Council that the county should be paying more instead of the city since city residents pay county taxes for services they don’t receive from the county, such as recreation and emergency medical services.

“Don’t nickel and dime us on these projects anymore if you’re taking our money and not providing any services,” Brown said.

Brown also pointed out that the county’s computer modeling shows 3,700 vehicles a day using the TDK extension, whereas he currently has about 4,200 vehicles a day coming into the city on Rockaway Road via Ga. Highway 74.

Brown said he’d rather spend money trying to fix the Rockaway Road intersection, which is a major entry point for Senoia residents, than spend more on TDK. He argues that most of the 3,700 cars in the county’s computer model for the TDK extension will come from residential development on the Coweta side.

The TDK extension is hailed by other leaders in the community as an alternate route for employees in the city’s industrial park who live in Coweta and must commute on the often-clogged Ga. Highway 54 corridor.

Brown called such thinking “the relief valve myth.”

Dunn was adamant the road would be built, and said the latest effort by Brown would not stall the project for long.