By DENNIS CHASE
Environmental Columnist

It has been several months since I discussed the many environmental issues involving our Fayette County Board of Education. Over the last year or two, I have had a number of direct encounters with a board member as well as staff responsible for construction and maintenance of the school grounds. I felt that these encounters have been mostly unproductive.

In my opinion, these folks demonstrate an attitude that says we are above the law, or at the very least, such trivial matters as sediment and erosion control or wetlands protection are not their concern.

I am sure that the board's official position would be that they care very much about the environment, but the list of destructive actions or inactions tells quite another story. And we all know that actions speak louder than words.

There are many sad stories connected with the actions of this and recent boards, but the latest example is perhaps one of the worst. A quick visit to McIntosh High School in Peachtree City will show you all you need to know. I have heard all about the pressure on the board from parents demanding a practice field for the sports teams, but the result is a significant insult to the environment as well as to several other issues.

They took 10 acres, heavily wooded, and utterly destroyed every living thing. This is treating the environment of our county with utter contempt. The 10-acre area was next to the school, and, as a relatively natural area, it was a valuable resource for the education potential for the various biology classes.

The board has traded the natural values as well as the educational potential for all of the students, for an area for practice by a few students. They moved half of the hillside to the low portion to create a flat field, but the wall of raw dirt looks exactly like many of their other construction projects where little is done to protect neighboring properties from eroding dirt during rainstorms.

I know many of you have experienced just that event at other school construction projects. If not, visit the wetlands behind the Starr's Mill School complex and you will find thousands of cubic yards of dirt that washed from the school property during construction, continued for months afterward and still goes on to a small degree.

For nearly three years the board representatives ignored the best efforts of federal, state and county representatives to do what they agreed to do on this project. It took that long to force the board to set aside the 27-acre mitigation area that was part of the permit allowing the board to destroy 4.75 acres of wetlands.

But back to your visit to the McIntosh practice field, observe that the side hill next to Banks Road is dangerous to any car slightly off the road. Who will explain why such a unbelievable project was installed when the parents of some injured (or worse) child asks how such a ridiculous project could be built?

But there is the issue of the construction project taking down trees from a Peachtree City greenbelt next to a cart path. They not only rip up their own environment, they go onto city property and hack away.

It would be amusing entertainment to hear the board of education explaining to the Peachtree City Council about what happened to those trees. How does the board pay for mature hardwoods cut down on property belonging to someone else? Does Peachtree City fine the board for an illegal taking of protected trees like they might for a private citizen doing the same thing? “Oops, sorry about that,” is likely the best they will get.

And then there is the cost of all of this ridiculous activity. Many thousands of dollars to destroy some of our natural resources, many thousands more to move dirt, more which should be spent to build a railing for cars and golf carts next to the dangerous road, an unknown amount due to Peachtree City for lost trees, and future thousands that would be required to pay for uncontrolled erosion cleanup (if it can be enforced by Peachtree City or the state of Georgia).

I'll bet the board will say it wasn't their fault. As usual they will blame the contractor or think it isn't worth their consideration in the first place. Never mind that it is the board's responsibility to all of us to be prudent and wise in how they spend the tax dollars we make available to them.

Now they are proposing another project; this will be for the wooded area next to the recently destroyed site. They plan to build several softball fields. It appears to me that the board of education finds trees to be a real bother, as they tear them down at every chance. A large number of large hardwood trees next to Ga. Highway 74 were taken down during the final construction work on the Starr's Mill site. This loss was for no reason that I could see and the weak explanation that those blocked the sight line for Hwy. 74 was not even close to being reasonable. More trees have now been lost there for construction of the new stadium. All of this is somewhat amazing since the area for the stadium was an open field.

If you haven't gathered by now, I find the actions of the board of education to be extremely offensive for everything environmental. I base that on all of the things described here in this column plus many, many, other examples I could describe.

All of these issues with the board leads directly to my final concern, and that is, how can we possibly provide them more dollars to squander on the destruction of the environment. Can you guess which way I plan to vote on the SPLOST matter when it comes up for a vote?

[Dennis Chase, now retired, was a fish and wildlife biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 26 years. Since retiring, he has worked as a consultant for Fayette County on environmental concerns, is a volunteer with the Southern Conservation Trust Inc., and has published numerous newspaper columns.]

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