Tyrone Councilman Ronnie Cannon's recent charge that Fayette County has shortchanged the town $300,000 in services left some of the county's leaders wondering where Cannon received his information.

Late last week, Cannon released a memo from Tyrone town manager Barry Amos that shows the exact areas the town would like to receive more in services from the county.

The memo, dated March 29, was addressed to Tyrone Councilman Paul Letourneau, who questioned whether the town was getting its fair share from the county.

In his memo, Amos explained he evaluated the town's share of services by dividing the county's operating budget by the number of citizens in Fayette County.

To determine how much Tyrone should be getting in services, Amos multiplied the return per citizen by the town's population.

Amos figured the town should be receiving $1.18 million in services from the county, but receives only a little over $872,000.

“I'm not asking for Peachtree City's or Fayetteville's share; I just want our fair share,” Cannon said.

The biggest lack of services is in the public works department, according to Amos. He calculated that the town should be receiving $275,667 in services, but currently only receives about $89,400.

Cannon can believe the figures. He said the county recently repaved Briarwood Road. The town waited for the county to come back and finish the work, but ultimately had to contract the work out to another company.

“We had to get a contract for work the county should have already done,” he said.

If the county doesn't want to supply the services, Cannon suggests the county give Tyrone its money back.

“We can bid these services out and we'll let the county bid on them just like everybody else,” he said.

Amos's report also indicates the town is being shortchanged about $45,000 a year in recreational services.

After hearing county administrator Billy Beckett say county officials had done a lot of upgrades to Shamrock park before deeding it back to Tyrone, Cannon expressed surprise.

“They didn't walk that property with me to see what needed to be done. The only thing I'm aware of they did was upgrade to the Americans with Disabilities Act standards, which they would have had to do anyway,” he said.

Cannon said he is frustrated with the lack of services being supplied to Tyrone and would like to see the system changed.

“Why are the people being taxed for services they're not receiving?” he asked.

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