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86%! Fayette voter turnout rate leads state, maybe nation; GOP wins big

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@thecitizennews.com

Nearly one-fourth of all votes cast by Fayette County voters in last week’s General Election were made even before the polls opened on election day, as residents led the state in turnout rate.

For every 100 persons registered in Fayette to vote, county officials said, 86 cast ballots, a rate that may be unsurpassed in the nation.

Fayette County Elections Superintendent Carolyn Combs said records show that 7,600 voters ended up casting ballots through early voting in the week before Nov. 2.

Additionally, about 5,000 more voters cast their ballots either through the mail or by absentee voting.

All total, 12,812 people voted by one of those advance methods, Combs said, out of a total of 52,661 votes cast.

Not surprisingly, Fayette County’s largely conservative electorate showed overwhelming support in reelecting President Bush to a second term.

They also voted in large numbers to support an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as the union between a man and woman. The so-called “gay marriage ban” was approved by 78.36 percent of local voters.

Fayette County also supported another amemendent to give the state Supreme Court jurisdiction in some federal cases by 66.04 percent.

The huge numbers of early voters is credited with making waits minimal and lines move quickly on election day, one of the smoothest in memory even though turnout was a record.

“We were very pleased,” said Combs. “We did so many with early voting, that eliminated much of wait at the precincts.”

The only reports of lines came in the early morning hours, as voters stopped by to cast their ballots on the way to work last Tuesday, Combs said. In the evening, most every one of Fayette’s 36 polling places closed on time with few people still in line to vote.

Ironically, the longest lines to vote during the election were probably to be found in the week before Nov. 2, when some 7,600 people voted in advance at the Fayette County Elections Office.

“But even then, we were working people through them in an hour,” said Combs.

Of Fayette’s 61,041 registered voters, 52,661 ended up casting ballots in this year’s election — for a turnout of 86.27 percent.

Those it was unconfirmed, Combs and others believe that figure would give Fayette County the highest voter turnout in the state — and possibly the nation.

In the 2000 Presidential election, Fayette County also recorded the state’s highest voter turnout.

More telling, perhaps, is the number of potential voters who cast ballots in Fayette. Of the county’s voting age population of 18 years and older, some 81 percent participated in the process in 2004, the highest in the metro Atlanta area. By comparison, just 43 percent of Clayton County’s eligible voters cast ballots last week.

Of no surprise to anyone was Fayette County’s overwhelming show of support for Republican candidates.

Of Fayette’s 36 precincts, 34 went for President Bush, in most cases by wide margins. Only two precincts with large numbers of minority voters — Kenwood and Europe — went with Kerry.

In Fayette County, Bush received 37,322 votes, or 70.9 percent, to Democrat John Kerry’s 14,862 votes, or 28.7 percent.

And so it went for Republicans on down the ballot. None of the candidates running for local Fayette County offices had a Democrat challenger.

And even those Democrats running for state offices who ended up winning their races lost in Fayette County, where the Republican candidates carried the day.

State Rep. Virgil Fludd, who lives in Tyrone, was reelected to his second two-year term in the Legislature, even though Fayette County voters overwhelmingly went with his Republican challenger, Sam Ring.

In Fayette, Ring got 71 percent of the vote to Fludd’s 28.97 percent, but when precincts in Fludd’s District 66 in South Fulton County were counted, Fludd was reelected with 66 percent of the vote.

Similarly, Republican Emory Wilkerson faired well in Fayette, drawing 62.71 percent of the vote for the state House 74 seat. But voters in the Clayton County portion of the district backed his Democratic challenger, Roberta Abdul-Salaam who received 60 percent of the vote total.

And in the race for state Senate District 34, Democrat Valencia Seay was returned to office with 69 percent of the vote. Her GOP opponent, Edith Marie Mullin, won Fayette County with 64 percent.

Republican winners who won solidly in Fayette County included Johnny Isakson in the race for U.S. Senate from Georgia (70.67 percent); Robert Baker for Public Service Commission (70.16 percent); and Lynn Westmoreland for U.S. Congress in Georgia’s 8th District (77.66 percent).

In the nonpartisan race for the Georgia Court of Appeals, Fayette went with Howard Mead, with 40.09 percent.

But that wasn’t enough to put Mead over the top. He got 39 percent of the vote statewide, to opponent Debra Bernes’ 42 percent.

The two will meet again in a runoff on Nov. 23, the Tuesday of Thanksgiving, as the only race on the ballot.

Elections officials expect the turnout to be light.

PTC vows to evict bogus renters

By JOHN MUNFORD

jmunford@thecitizennews.com

A woman renting a home in Peachtree City was arrested Saturday for bilking a government housing program of over $27,000, police said.

Similar arrests will be forthcoming in the near future, promised Peachtree City Police Chief James Murray.

Carolyn Redding, 105 Kings Ridge Drive in the Wynnmeade subdivision, was arrested on felony charges of making false statements and writings and fraudulently obtaining public assistance, police said.

As of Tuesday morning, dispossessory proceedings to have Redding evicted from the house have been filed, Murray noted.

City officials noted the effort is to help Wynnmeade homeowners with “specific renters in the subdivision who were disrupting their day-to-day lives.”

Murray said police have responded to the Redding residence for numerous calls over the past year, including one shooting and other fights and disturbances. Such incidents drain the department’s manpower, but they also led police to work with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs on the housing fraud case, Murray said.

In this case, Redding used the Section 8 federal housing program and claimed that more people lived in the home than who actually lived there, Murray said.

“There are other arrests coming down the pipe,” Murray said. He noted that the arrests would take place in other areas of the city also. “It’s definitely not just Wynnmeade.”

Murray said Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown played a key role in starting the crackdown, as did Geoffrey Parker of the DCA and the Fayette County Department of Family and Children Services, which helped determine whether children lived at the home.

“This was a great coordinated effort,” Murray said. “They took $27,000 from people who need that money to live, such as the disabled.”

Murray also lauded the cooperation from the Wynnmeade Homeowners Association. Residents shouldn’t have to put up with problems caused by landlords who don’t care about what goes on at their property, Murray added.

“The good people who live there have had enough,” Murray said, encouraging other neighborhoods to report chronic problems to police.

Brown said he and several Wynnmeade residents met with DCA in June, learning how the subsidized housing program could be abused and defrauded.

“Since that meeting, I have made it my mission to go after the people who violate the system, cause disturbance in the neighborhoods, and tear down our standards,” Brown said. “This effort is now beginning to bear some fruit, and I applaud DCA for working so diligently with the city.”

“Our City Council has recognized the importance of revitalizing some of the areas that have been allowed to fall into decline, and we realize that when these areas improve, our entire city improves,” Brown said.

Flu shots go 1st to nursing homes

By JOHN MUNFORD

jmunford@thecitizennews.com

Local public health officials are working to administer flu vaccinations to residents of Fayette’s nursing homes because they are at high risk of developing complications from the virus, officials said Monday.

Meanwhile, residents who call the Fayette County Health Department inquiring about the availability of flu vaccines are being put on a waiting list, said Cynthia Grant, county nurse manager.

Should more flu vaccine become available, persons on the waiting list will be contacted to “come on in and get their vaccine,” Grant said.

“That’s the only thing we can do,” she added.

The decision to vaccinate local nursing home residents first is largely due to their susceptibility should they contract the flu virus, Grant said. Also, they are at greater risk of contracting the virus because they are in an enclosed space that is often visited by members of the public, Grant noted.

“Anyone with a weakened immune system could wind up with severe consequences from flu,” Grant said. “Say, for example, someone with a chronic lung problem on oxygen. The flu would really complicate that.”

Elizabeth Fitch, risk communicator for District IV Public Health, said Medical Director Michael Brackett thought “it was the best medical practice” to prioritize the vaccine for nursing home patients.

“Their bodies just can’t fight the infection,” Fitch said, adding that contracting a strain of pneumonia is a complication of the flu that can endanger elderly patients. A one-time vaccination for that pneumonia is available at the Fayette County Health Department (See accompanying story).

Across the country, officials are grappling with the distribution of flu vaccines after one private company’s product was taken off the market. In a normal year, the local health department has plenty of flu shots to go around for everyone, Grant said.

In the past, officials had a four-day-long event where the county’s seven nurses dole out nothing but flu vaccines, Grant said.

The county health department is getting over a hundred calls a day requesting the vaccine, indicating that some are starting to worry about its availability, Grant said.

So far, residents in five of the county’s nursing homes have been vaccinated with another two nursing homes to go, Grant said.

“Hopefully we’ll get those this week,” Grant said, noting that the health department was waiting on information from the nursing homes for the right time to come by and vaccinate the patients.

In addition to vaccinating nursing home residents, participants in the Fayette Senior Services day program are also being vaccinated because they are together in an enclosed space for several hours a day, Grant noted.

Pneumonia shots urged for elderly

By JOHN MUNFORD

jmunford@thecitizennews.com

Because of the flu vaccine shortage, persons over age 65 are being urged to do the next best thing: Take a vaccine for pneumococcal pneumonia.

Pneumonia is one of the most dangerous complications of the flu and the one-time vaccine is important for persons over age 65, said Elizabeth Fitch, public health risk coordinator.

The vaccine is available at the health department and from private physicians, officials said. Pneumococcal pneumonia hospitalizes approximately 175,000 people and kills an estimated 40,000 people in the U.S. each year.

In 2002, 13 people ages 60 and older died of pneumonia in Fayette County while another 155 persons were hospitalized with pneumonia, according to state health statistics.

Health officials are recommending the vaccine for persons 65 and over, those who have a chronic illness such as asthma, heart disease, lung disease, sickle cell disease or diabetes. The vaccine is also urged for persons with compromised immune systems due to illness or chemotherapy, and for persons who live in a long-term care facility.

The pneumococcal vaccine is available for children and adults, and most adults only need to receive the vaccine once, officials said.

Health officials also urge the following precautions to protect persons from contracting the flu virus:

 Avoid close contact with people who are sick. If you are sick, keep your distance from others.

 Stay home when you are sick and keep your children home from school when they are sick.

 Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or a sleeve when coughing or sneezing and discard used tissues immediately.

 Wash your hands regularly with warm, soapy water or use alcohol-based hand cleaner.

 Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

Rezoning to replace church with Walgreens opposed

By JOHN MUNFORD

jmunford@thecitizennews.com

A possible commercial rezoning that would allow a Walgreens drug store to be built on the current location of Christ our Shepherd Lutheran Church still has opponents riled up, as evidenced in Monday night’s workshop meeting of Peachtree City’s Planning Commission about the issue.

Although one person served as spokesmen for the group of residents opposing the rezoning, it was clear they strongly oppose the plan to build a Walgreens on the corner of Ga. Highway 54 and Peachtree Parkway, the church’s home since its founding more than two decades ago.

“Our opposition is not to the church at all,” Ray Helton said of the church’s wish to relocate to a larger tract of land. “The opposition is to the rezoning.”

The church could still relocate without its current parcel being rezoned for commercial use, Helton argued.

The church and developer Commercial Net Lease Realty Services Inc. of Orlando are seeking a limited use commercial rezoning for a 14,820 sq. ft. one-story Walgreens and a second out-parcel building that may house a bank, said company representative Lane Ramsfield.

The 2.98-acre property is currently zoned for office-institutional use, but when the church bought the property in the mid-1970s, it was intended for commercial use, noted Pastor John Weber.

Church spokesman Ted Thomas said the church wanted the limited use commercial rezoning to protect its neighbors who live in the bordering Highlands subdivision since the LUC can allow for more strict buffers and other features not required by city ordinances.

Ramsfield said the building was being designed with more architectural features so it will look less like a cookie-cutter typical Walgreens.

Ramsfield said that Walgreens will own the property outright. He also noted that the developer has agreed to a 20-year deed restriction that forbids the site from being used for a gas station, liquor store, bar, club, restaurant or convenience store.

Helton, a resident of the Highlands subdivision, said traffic is a “major issue” for opponents of the rezoning petition.

Helton also argued that with six major churches on Hwy. 54, rezoning the Lutheran Church could open the door for “multiple churches” to rezone and increase the city’s commercial density.

Helton indicated the property could be marketable for office-institutional use. He also said other entities such as Christian City, which is leasing temporary space in Peachtree City, might be interested in the current Lutheran Church building.

Marcie Curry Williams, who has lived in Peachtree City for 35 years, said she too opposed the rezoning but the church needs the community’s help in finding a suitable tenant to purchase the property.

“I don’t believe Walgreens is it,” she said.

Thomas said other churches were approached to purchase the current Lutheran Church building but none were interested because either they couldn’t afford it, or they wanted more acreage than the Lutheran site offers.

Thomas also noted that the current office-institutional zoning would “just eliminate any buffering we had” for the homes in the Highlands subdivision.

The Lutheran Church wants to move because it needs more room to grow. On Sundays at 11 a.m., the church has two separate services on either side of the building, Thomas said. There is also a wish for more land to expand the church’s ministry in the future, representatives said.

“The decision to relocate was not an easy one, but this is the best way to go,” Thomas said.

Neighbors’ concerns about buffering, lighting, dumpster location and location of the store’s shipping and receiving areas are being worked on between the church and the developer, Thomas added.

The church has investigated the possibility of expanding on its current site, but there’s little room on which to do so, Thomas said.

“We would like for them to find a property more suitable to them,” Helton said. “We just don’t want them to leave us a mess behind.”

“We don’t want to leave a mess, either,” Thomas said. “We want to grow.”

The commission didn’t formally vote on the plan but is anticipated to do so at its next meeting on Monday, Nov. 22.

New roads soon? No

By J. FRANK LYNCH

jflynch@thecitizennews.com

The only real drama that played out locally on election night was in the vote to approve or disapprove a $116 million SPLOST initiative to fund Fayette County road construction.

Voters narrowly approved the measure, 51 percent to 49 percent or by about 1,000 votes.

The passage means an additional penny on the dollar sales tax will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2005.

But don’t expect to see widespread road construction to start anytime soon.

The SPLOST revenue will be collected by the state and redistributed to Fayette County starting next spring. The money will be used to apply for state and federal grants to fund new road construction and additions to existing roads and bridges over the next 20 years.

With all precincts counted Tuesday night, the measure passed with just 51 percent of the vote, or by 1,278 votes.

In early vote tallies Tuesday, the SPLOST was losing by an equally tight margin — until, ironically, the Peachtree City precincts began coming in after 8 p.m.

Some political observers thought Peachtree City voters might doom the SPLOST. That’s because in recent months, Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown had campaigned nearly non-stop against the 70/30 revenue distribution plan for the SPLOST.

Under the agreement, Peachtree City will get about $11 million from the SPLOST, Brown said.

But Brown’s efforts apparently didn’t sway enough of his constituents to turn the 1-cent sales tax down. It passed in 11 of 13 Peachtree City precincts.

During Wednesdays’ County Commission meeting, the commissioners were downright happy with Tuesday’s results.

“I wish it would have passed by a bigger margin, but this is really going to help our transportation needs,” said Commissioner Herb Frady.

Chairman Greg Dunn was also pleased with the results and said residents will see how helpful the extra penny is when the county already has its money in place to match funds from the federal government.

The commission also dismissed any notions of getting any type of “bridge loan” until the funds start rolling in next May. The tax starts Jan. 1.

“One of the hardest things you can do is to get people to vote a tax on themselves. But the residents knew how important our transportation plan is,” Dunn said.

Last week, Brown dismissed any notion that passage of the SPLOST was a statement on his political influence.

Instead, he said the narrow vote tallies — just 2 percent — shows that Fayette Countians are concerned about fair tax equity distribution.

“The very fact that the school bonds won by an overwhelming margin of over 18,000 votes and the SPLOST won by a mere 1,200 votes is a clear indication that the voting public is uncomfortable with the leadership of the Fayette County Commission and that district representation and tax equity are going to be strong issues in the future,” said Brown.

Brown has joined State Rep. Virgil Fludd in calling for district voting in Fayette County as a way to ensure equal representation and taxation for all areas within the county.

Brown expressed disappointment that all of the city’s former living mayors signed onto an ad last week urging passage of the SPLOST.

“I was shocked they would take a position opposite the position of their own city,” Brown said. While all of the other city councils in the county passed resolutions of support in some fashion for the SPLOST, Peachtree City, on the advice of its attorney, did not.

“None of the former mayors consulted with the present city administration about why the city was taking the position it did,” Brown said.

Even though the SPLOST argument is finally settled, Brown refused to declare a truce with the county or Commission Chairman Greg Dunn.

“We’ve always been willing to work with the county on any projects, especially roads,” said Brown of the city. “Our problem has always been, and will continue to be, tax equity.”