As your candidate for Post 1 of the Peachtree City Council, I want to urge you to please get out and vote. For those of you that have recently moved to Peachtree City in the last several years, we are at a pivotal point in our city's development. Peachtree City has long been a family-oriented locale that has offered many different recreational opportunities. Our crime rate is very low and the pace is not as hectic as the rest of metro Atlanta.

However, we are currently in the midst of a developmental fury that threatens to water down those things that we hold so dear.

The troubles we currently face are but the tip of the iceberg. Instead of practicing prevention, the city has allowed the wound to remain open until we are now facing a crisis. First, we need to carefully review our land use planning process and insure that we do not repeat any of our past mistakes. Even with the widening of Ga. highways 54 and 74, the traffic draw of large commercial mega-stores now entering our city will overwhelm us. Remember that the areas surrounding Peachtree City are growing incredibly fast and those people will be coming to our city to eat and shop.

Annexation could make things worse. Declaring a moratorium on annexation is nothing but a temporary bandage. We need some serious planning, and my civil engineering experience would be a plus. If we wanted our lives to be “commercialized,” we would have moved to Riverdale or Gwinnett County.

Second, we could find ourselves in budget crisis down the road and we need to work on streamlining the budget now and not wait until we run into a brick wall. Again, annexation is not the answer to our fiscal concerns.

Annexation is a delay of the inevitable with a large price tag attached.

When a city our size has nearly 900,000 unappropriated dollars (council contingency) in the budget we have a problem. we need accountability. The city actually had an opportunity to reduce taxes this year and decided not to do so. The overage will be used for non—budgeted “special” purposes, leaving the taxpayer out in the cold without a voice on those expenditures.

Third, when I moved to Peachtree City in 1985, there was a lot of trees. In fact, there was a commitment to leaving tree save areas in all types of zoning. The development I have seen within the last several years closely resembles clear-cutting. The city needs to be running the show and not the other way around. There is also construction going on in the encroachment areas near our lakes and streams. This is totally unacceptable. The majority of our city council members has done little to rectify these problems. I have the necessary experience, having worked as an environmental engineer with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for more than 12 years. If elected, I will begin acting immediately while we still have something to protect.

Last, there is speculation that my incumbent opponent, if elected, will leave her council post after serving only two years to run for mayor. Her city council term limitation would run out after this next term. You must take this into consideration because if she does abandon her post to run for mayor, her replacement would be appointed. Do you really want an “appointed” city councilman in a period when we are facing traffic, development, annexation, environmental and budgetary concerns? A lot can happen in two years. You know where I stand and I hope that I can count on your vote on Nov. 2, 1999.

James Melvin Ewing
Peachtree City
Council Post 1 candidate

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