The south end of Ga. Highway 74 will be the new Ga. Highway 85, except all of the shopping centers will be much bigger. Let’s not allow a few trees and 48 years of solid planning get in the way of a little developer greediness.

New Classified Ad — Title: Home For Sale in 2010. Start Date: March 20, 2007. End Date: March 22, 2007. Description: Potential home for sale, close in 2009. Perfect home for young couple with no children or pets. Walk to pool is perfect for all thrill-seekers and extremists. Noise NOT a problem for neighbors. Extremely convenient to shopping. If this ad disturbs you, please contact your city council members to fight the new development on Hwy. 74. 1133 says NO! Price: $0.

Mayor Harold Logsdon needs to get off his can and stop putting off his duties as mayor. All the talk about financial accountability was nice during the campaign, but it’s time to back it up. Killing our town with big boxes as a way to get around his ineptitude as mayor and properly handling our city budget is ridiculous. In the end, we’ll get the Lowe’s and the Kohl’s and still have our taxes increased. Logsdon and council members Judi-ann Rutherford, Stuart Kourajian and Steve Boone want the county to create an EMS tax district that excludes Peachtree City from contributing to county EMS. So what has happened since then? Mayor Logsdon and crew have done absolutely NOTHING. Fayette County is adding 25 new employees, in part, with our Peachtree City funds and we still get nothing in terms of service. I think calling Mayor Logsdon a paper tiger is an exaggeration. He’s more like a paper worm. He is going to increase our taxes, add harmful big box stores and let the county keep our quarter of a million dollars every year. The 2008 budget is going to be a disaster and the big box traffic and expense will make it a whole lot worse.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Mayor Harold to get our tax money back from the county like he promised. Also, be sure not to bet your house on his pledge of rolling taxes back. And the promise about keeping Peachtree City the great place it has always been can be wiped from your mind too after his pitch for more traffic and big box stores. Remember his zero based budgeting plan that was never implemented? Mayor Harold made out like he was going to be a Henry Kissinger and build fantastic relations with the other governments. Well, the Coweta government told us to stick it. The Fayette government said don’t talk to us about doubt taxation. GDOT cut down every tree possible on Hwy. 74. And we are the laughing stock of the other city councils. Start shining your wallet because your next tax increase is on the way. The mayor never lets his conscience cloud his bad judgment.

If Peachtree City, Tyrone and Fayetteville would stop rezoning land to a higher density, we wouldn’t be having school redistricting problems. The new Wieland subdivision in Tyrone (750 students), westside annexation in Peachtree City (900 students) and Fayetteville adding thousands of new students in multiple subdivisions means more redistricting and more taxes. Instead of a $5,000 per day consultant, why not get the city councils to just say “NO” on higher density rezonings to keep our districts stable and our taxes down.

As part of a group studying the retreat material of the PTC mayor and council, I am alarmed at all the spending proposed. Most don’t know by the time it’s all over the taxpayers will have spent over half a million dollars on studies and repairs to Bob Lenox’s police station built on a Pathway landfill. The embarrassment for the city is significant knowing their elected officials mislead them into buying a landfill from a local developer. Why are the taxpayers left holding this bag of debts and IOUs? We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for having a sizable portion of our city budget going to fund problems from past shady land deals. Like the millions in long-term taxpayer debt paid to dispose of the development authority corruption, the pain of a dishonest government lingers long after the offenses are committed. Financial accountability is a large problem with this current government council and their wish lists are going to far exceed our resources. There are no mechanisms in place, that we could find, to hold spending in check with current revenues. Our chances of experiencing a decrease in taxes as our current mayor guaranteed appear nothing more than fantasy. You don’t have to be the likes of Alan Greenspan to figure out we are heading for big problems. I think it is clear the council’s pursuing large-scale retail development is their futile attempt at creating a hedge against their runaway spending. Unfortunately, in future years, we will find those stores like Lowe’s cost us significant amounts in the funding of services and infrastructure. These observations are made based only on the proposed spending in the very near-term. The long-term prognosis is much more bleak.

Steve Brown, this is a challenge. Come on. You have written a letter a week for too many weeks telling us how horrible TDK will be. We agree, already. But will you simply take the time to answer the question as to why YOU didn’t kill the project in the four years you were mayor? Why did you leave this up to the current administration? What possible reason? And why did you take so much pride in supporting TDK in your Oct. 5, 2005, letter? Come on, Steve, answer the questions. I dare you! You accuse Logsdon, et al, of being deceptive; how about you? You did NOTHING to stop the project, and, according to your own letter, actually funded and pushed it along. Why? Now we are faced with this issue, and you blame everyone but yourself. Yet by your own claim the fact that TDK is happening can mostly be blamed on you and your council. So come on, Steve, answer the questions.

The Fayette County School Board should all undergo IQ testing, or at minimum, a common sense test. I feel, sadly, they would fail them both. First, they could not, or would not, keep illegal students out of Fayette County schools. The school board’s argument was that no problem existed. Sure. Then, when residents (and voters) knew that was utter and complete hogwash, they finally addressed the issue and started verifying students’ residency in Fayette County. Way to go, school board! Now, after some redistricting issues blew up in their face, they are paying some “expert” $5, 000 per day for advice on the subject. $5,000 a day?! Are you kidding? What a joke. Moreover, what a reckless waste of taxpayer dollars. And what a shame.

Tyrone’s Triangle Park: A great place to sit and watch traffic go by on all three sides. Plenty of walking paths, even for the least physically fit (the entire park can be traversed in a matter of steps). Bring your sunglasses if you come after dusk. Free parking available, too, now that even more of the “park” has been paved. Just be careful when backing out onto Senoia Road.

To the “registered Democrat and registered Republican” commenting on 03/21/2007: You may not be from Georgia which would explain this, but in Georgia you are a registered voter, not Republican or Democrat. That’s why at primaries the poll workers ask you which party ballot you would like to cast a vote for. Doesn’t matter in the general election since all parties are present on these ballots. I may be wrong but for 22 years I’ve been a registered voter in Georgia. Let me know if they have changed this situation.

How do you like the new Braves baseball cap with the little ear flaps you can turn down when the weather gets cold?

It broke my heart to drive down Redwine Road in Fayetteville last Sunday morning on my way to church and see the host of young boys at the ball field at the time parents could have had them in Sunday school and church to worship. Nobody enjoys watching these young people play ball any more than I do. However, Sunday a.m. is not the time to play organized sports. Scheduling after church would be a better option. We owe this to our children.

Voters who had been abandoned and betrayed by the Democratic Party fled to the Reagan Republican Party. To which party will Reagan Republicans be driven because the neo-con, open-borderites have betrayed conservative principles?

The latest alibi for opposing penalties against employers of illegal aliens being ”marketed” by Chambers of Commerce nationwide: “Businesses shouldn’t be penalized because we’re not document experts.” Hint to employers: when Social Security contacts you about a “mismatch” of name and number for your employees, this is a clue. Ditto for employees who stay away after “sweeps.”

Your calls matter. Public outrage has turned the subject of illegal immigration into a high-octane issue, and has forced our glorious leaders to start enforcing a 20-year-old law that prohibits businesses from knowingly employing illegal aliens. Keep calling.