Lordy, Lordy, Peachtree City's 40!

The rhythm isn't right, but the amazement is just as genuine, when movers and shakers of Georgia's New Town, as they used to call the west Fayette municipality, realized their baby is officially middle-aged.

In a decidedly low-key celebration, a few citizens and a few pioneers gathered at City Hall Tuesday to congratulate each other and celebrate the birth of a city on March 9, 1959.

First mayor Joel Cowan was out of the country on business this week, but second mayor Ralph Jones and the "second First Lady," as Jones calls his wife, Brownie came to the party. The fourth mayor, Howard Morgan, and his wife, Dolly, were also there. So was Fred Brown, who served longest, from 1982 to 1992.

Brown has often noted that Peachtree City may be unique among American cities in that its every mayor is still living, and still living in Peachtree City.

The former mayors were introduced briefly by His Present Honor, Bob Lenox, and reflected on their roles in the city's history.

On Jones' watch, the fire department was founded with a single rebuilt pumper and a dozen volunteers. Little League began, playing at Pesky Field, a space now occupied by First Baptist Church. With county Sheriff's deputies providing night-time coverage, the city hired its first full-time police officer and chief, Haskell Barber.

Jones explained how the city got its Post Office. He said it took "a little finagling" after "going through regular channels" did not succeed. "We got Jack Flynt and Andrew Whalen and had a barbecue" next to the lake where Dr. Henry Drake's office would be, Jones said. "We had to pour a few libations, but we finally got our own Post Office."

Flynt was then the U.S. Congressman for Fayette County, at that time in the Sixth District. Whalen, who recently retired as superior court judge, was at the time the circuit's district attorney, in Griffin.

Similarly, after the city fruitlessly applied twice with FAA for a grant to build an airport, "Joel [Cowan] just did it." Cowan was with Bessemer Development Corp., predecessor to Peachtree City Development Corp. (which recently became Pathway Communities). The company provided money, manpower, and technology for most of the city's earliest enterprises.

Jones recounted the story of attending a banquet of the Georgia Municipal Association, when Peachtree City first joined that organization. He and Brownie were among 800 people dining at the old Marriott Hotel.

Later, local newspaper gossip-columnist Louise Leach wrote, "Mayor and Mrs. Ralph Jones had dinner Friday with Gov. and Mrs. Lester Maddox...."

Jones joked Tuesday that early city leaders like himself, who served with no pay, should have special privileges like not being charged for traffic violations and having their businesses exempted from the sign ordinance.

"Jim Williams wasn't there," he said of the city's Director of Developmental Services who vigorously defends city codes like the sign ordinance, "but [Police Chief Jim] Murray sent me a little note, with a free get-out-of-jail card that expired at midnight. I didn't have any violations, so I didn't get to use it."

Morgan spoke of the volunteers who made such a difference in the young city's growth when he was mayor, beginning in 1972. He said he was proud of what was accomplished during his tenure not that he believes he deserves credit, but because of the efforts of so many citizens working together.

Volunteers organized and created a library, a recreation program, and the first advanced life support emergency medical service in the state run by volunteers. The city's planning and zoning commission, and the industrial and water authorities date from the Morgan years, and Morgan led formal codification of the city's zoning ordinance.

Former Mayor Brown said his predecessors had been so effective that he had only to continue steering Peachtree City along the way they had launched it. He was too modest. In earlier interviews, he acknowledged that he proposed the city's five-year public improvement program and capital budget while still a city councilman, and inaugurated them once he took the helm.

FAA grant-funded expansion of Peachtree City-Falcon Field as a city facility is part of Brown's legacy. Other noteworthy advances included the new library and City Hall, the four-laning of Georgia Hwy. 74, and fine-tuning of the zoning ordinance and the city's land use plan.