You gotta love that high-tech tornado warning system we have in PTC. The alarm at the Parkway and Braelinn Road sounded five minutes AFTER the worst of Sunday night’s storm had gone through. I thought the whole idea was to warn us ahead of time.

----------------------------------------------------------------

At the rate things are going, they’ll have to cut down the last stand of trees in PTC to keep up with the demand for “Impeach Harold Logsdon” bumper stickers.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I’m happy for the new commissioners. I hope they remember that the will of the people has always been low density. I am already afraid that Ga. Highway 54 is going to end up looking like Upper Riverdale Road and that would not be good. I wish business coming into the county would be encouraged to take up the space already empty here before they build. A slowdown on strip centers would also be a plus to our county. So many are going up and I am not convinced they look the best for Fayetteville no matter how attractive [or] aesthetically pleasing they are.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The newest “Hogzilla” was found right here in Fayetteville. It’s a good time to re-educate locals: if you have a pet (be it pig, snake, turtle, bunny, whatever) don’t release it into the wild when you get tired of caring for it or it gets too hard or boring for you. Find another domestic home for the pet; there are also various rescues here and in the metro area. When released into the wild, these ex-pets damage the local ecosystem and become dangerous to people and their pets. And, frankly, it’s just cruel to take an animal used to being cared for and force it to survive on its own.

----------------------------------------------------------------

When you call the Allied Waste Services customer service line, you will hear a recorded message listing the holiday service interruptions, including Christmas, New Year’s, Thanksgiving and July 4. The message then goes on to tell you that service would be shifted back one weekday each holiday to give their employees these holidays off. This is common business practice and is acceptable. What is not acceptable is the company not living up to this plan. This past Monday was New Year’s Day. My family, long-time customers of Allied Waste and the companies they have bought out over the years, was prepared to have our normal service day of Tuesday pushed back to Wednesday. And when the company did not show up Wednesday, we assumed they would be out the next day. But when no one showed up by 3:30 p.m. on Thursday to service our street, we called that customer service line. After being on hold for an extremely long time period, we were told a truck was working our route and would have the trash picked up by 8 p.m. No one showed up. On Friday afternoon, we found several of these overloaded garbage cans had been turned over due to the high winds and bad weather experienced in the area that morning. With several of our neighbors being elderly and unable to pickup this mess, we first spent time cleaning up our neighborhood. Then we called Allied Waste again. After another long hold time, the customer service representative told us again that someone was working our route and would be here by 8 p.m. When confronted with repetition of this message, the representative said, “Well, that’s what I’ve been told to say to you,” and became very hostile. No truck showed up Friday. It is now 9:45 on Saturday morning and that truck that should have been here several days ago just showed up. The lack of service by Allied Waste Services is completely unacceptable. It left our neighborhood in unsanitary and dangerous conditions. Loaded trash bags and loose trash were strewn around yards and in the roads. While I understand that Allied Waste did not themselves destroy our neighborhood, their actions, or lack thereof, resulted in these conditions. This is also not the first time Allied Waste has “forgotten” our neighborhood. This past summer, no trucks from Allied Waste were seen on our street for over a week and a half. When we requested an emergency pickup, we were told they would eventually get to us, but they could not tell us when. Last year, the men threw our trash barrel down on the pavement so hard that it broke the wheels off the bottom, making it impossible for us to roll it up and down our driveway which has a steel grade. After four months of calling them everyday to request a new trash can and being told it would be here “today,” we finally got a working can. My family and several others on our street have decided to cancel our service with Allied Waste and will be finding a more responsible, reliable service. We hope that no other Fayette County citizens have endured this complete lack of customer service, and hope that this letter will warn others considering the Allied Waste service of the dangers and inconveniences the company has brought upon their current customers.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The AJC from Wednesday verified Mayor Harold Logsdon’s ineptness. He said the city will do nothing to control the kudzu growing in the greenbelts. This proves, once again, the mayor has the vision of a blind man walking in a room filled with landmines. I guess the kudzu will destroy whatever his over-development strategy doesn’t kill. Where there is no vision the people will perish.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, Fayetteville has a new nice dining restaurant, ONYXX. It has a wonderful atmosphere, the people are friendly, our waiter, Chris, was just excellent. We had an appetizer of shrimp on grits with roasted corn salsa. I have never had anything quite so unusual and it was wonderful. My meal was blackened tilapia and it was good too. My husband had clams with pasta which he thoroughly enjoyed. The only thing I think would do different is the butter for bread: it is sweet and not to my taste. They also play jazz music sometimes. I hope Fayetteville will support this new endeavor; it is well worth the wait and I do not know the owner or anyone connected with it.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone know how much the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were compensated for attending James Brown’s funeral?

----------------------------------------------------------------

To 100-year-old Judy Meade of Peachtree City: you go, girl! I want to be just like you when I grow up.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I would like to see the 1-800-GOT-JUNK people get their own junky signs off of the right-of-ways in Fayette County. We’re looking more like Clayton County every day.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Illegal immigration has become very profitable to many greedy Americans. It’s a taxpayer-subsidized form of slavery. Just about under every rock, there’s someone making money off illegal aliens.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Because so many blue collar workers now speak ONLY Spanish, illegal aliens who speak SOME English are working in higher-paying, first- and middle-management positions. To keep your present job, you’d better speak fluent Spanish.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Instead of criticizing the U.S., why don’t Catholic leaders go to Mexico and build up the country with new schools, hospitals, roads, libraries and factories and train these hard-working people to become successful and independent?

----------------------------------------------------------------

When politicians say that Mexico is a “good neighbor,” what do they like the best: tons of drugs or millions of illegals?

----------------------------------------------------------------

Thumbs down to obfuscating hair-splitters, who imply that we are arrogant and ignorant to call ourselves “American,” on the grounds that anyone living in North and South American can make the same claim to the title “American.” When we are in the United States of America, we are entirely correct to say we are Americans in America. “America” is not a part of the name of other nations.