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Will he or won’t he?

Brown mulls political future

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City residents may find out later this week whether or not Mayor Steve Brown intends to seek re-election or not.

Brown has previously said he is interested in possibly running for a county commission seat, taking on current commission Chairman Greg Dunn.

Brown has sparred with the county, disagreeing with the way the commission voted to offer the transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax days before a new law kicked in that would have netted a larger share of the funds for Peachtree City.

Brown has also sparred with the county over tax equity issues, arguing that city residents pay more in county taxes than they should because they get EMS services from the city instead of the county.

Brown also said he wanted the county to contribute more funds to the TDK Boulevard Extension project after a new road design was necessitated when it was discovered last year that the first road design travels through the runway safety zone for the adjacent Falcon Field Airport.

Before airport officials stepped in with funds for more engineering work, the council was at an impasse and the project was temporarily on hold. Now, the engineering is basically complete and city staff are working on acquiring the needed right-of-way on several tracts. That includes two golf holes at Planterra Ridge Golf Club which will need to be relocated to accommodate the road.

Business officials hail the road as a necessary link with Coweta County, particularly of benefit to companies in the city’s industrial park and the Braelinn Village shopping center in south Peachtree City.

Brown said Friday that he couldn’t work on the election issue until now because of the city’s Community Action Day, which he is heavily involved in. That event brings together volunteers for a number of community improvement projects, from cemetery cleanups to school landscape enhancements to fix-it projects for senior citizens.

This year, Community Action Day got a huge boost in the massive renovation of a small house that holds three handicapped brothers, their sister and her two daughters. That project was overseen by John Wieland Homes, which had previously approached the city about how it could help out with a special project.

A number of local companies also donated their time and items to the house, and the project spun into something more intense than city officials dreamed, as new appliances and furniture were thrown into the mix.