I have been somewhat encouraged lately to read the letters that some of our citizens are now writing to the editor. Perhaps if more people sent in their views we might make a difference. However, for the past three–five years so many developments and zonings were already a done deal and the citizens' concerns were of little concern.

Just recently our mayor, Bob Lenox, approved the expenditure of $7,000 to hire outside experts to advise on a development plan for Ga. Highway 54 and Walt Banks Road. First the City Council turns down the well-thought-out “Mews.” Then Mayor Lenox formed a committee to further explore other options.

Two city council members and a few citizens volunteered to attend the meetings, and now the mayor is hiring outside experts for $7,000 to propose a plan for Hwy. 54 and Walt Banks Road, regardless of the “No” opinions of the City Council members.

The mayor is permitted to spend a certain amount of money on a project, without approval. However, that is still taxpayers' money he is spending.

And what are we doing about our build-out population? Planners are now estimating the build-out will be 37,500 people. What happened to the 35,000 build-out that we probably are close to right now?

The mayor was quoted in one of the papers as saying, “ We have room for only about 5,000 to 6,000 more people.” Where does he plan to put them? In another apartment complex that we don't know about yet? And when they do a census don't they count the children that we have to build all these new schools for?

But then, the mayor has said schools are not the city's responsibility, it's the county [school board's]. I suppose the mayor will be real active in his support of both the school financing and the county financing.

You may have read that Peachtree City ranks the highest of the list of fastest growing cities (61.2 percent) between 1990 and 1998. Shouldn't we be taking a breather by now?

Mildred Harris
Peachtree City

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