You would think the PTC City Council would pay attention to the majority of citizens who said they don’t want annexation in the city’s survey. You would think they would pay attention to the current comprehensive plan that discourages annexing more land. You would think the City Council would avoid dislocating hundreds of students at Kedron, Crabapple and Booth, especially since the families moved to be in a certain school district, and push them out to the county. You would think the City Council would demand less density in the Westside. Think again; this City Council could care less and it shows.

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I couldn’t agree more with Ralph Ferguson’s April 25 letter. I too moved here nine years ago to get away from all the traffic and congestion of other Atlanta areas. If I needed something at the store, I didn’t mind driving out of the area. The only thing that Ralph forgot to add was how many more banks and drug stores do we need? It seems that the powers to be want their cake and to eat it too. Let’s hope they don’t choke on it.

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On the front page of The Citizen dated April 25, 2007, it states that Mayor Logsdon is looking for “unbiased” advice concerning the proposed TDK Extension. The mayor is correct in going to sources outside of the city to get “unbiased” opinions, if “unbiased” opinions are what he wants. The residents of Peachtree City are probably the most “biased” people on earth towards Peachtree City. We love the city and care about the city more than any other city. We care about our own quality of life and our own children’s quality of life. We, selfishly, care about our own property values as well. Mr Logsdon, that is how democracy works. People, with their own communities’ best interests in mind, trying to make decisions to enhance their own communities and, consequently, their own lives. Should the mayor be so sure he needs “unbiased” opinion? We don’t need to spend our tax dollars for a study to determine if the residents of a gigantic new community (3,100 homes) that would be built in Coweta County, on our doorstep, would have automobiles and use them on their nearest road. This is a democracy; “We the people” have the right to decide what we want to do. No responsible leader should try to lead the people anywhere that 90 percent of us have indicated we don’t want to go. We aren’t interested in the cost of the TDK Extension. I think many people would contribute, if necessary, to the cost of erecting a wall to keep the road from being built. We don’t want it cheap. We don’t want it free. We just plain don’t want it. We certainly don’t want it when Coweta County has 3,100 homes planned to pour traffic into Peachtree City, especially when they don’t have viable access to I-85 at this point.

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Give Mayor Logsdon a break. I had the pleasure to have a side chat with him at the Morallion Hills HOA meeting over the winter. Over-development and big box approvals were here way before he became mayor. The traffic is going to come and PTC will have to deal with it and its cost. The developers will build one mile down the road in Coweta County and PTC will lose all of that local sales and property tax revenue. If PTC keeps with the Levittown idea, the homeowners (you and I) will be the ones getting hit at the pocket while the counties and towns with a large mix of industrial and retail will be subsidized with some relief. It takes more city services to oversee the same amount of area with homes than with retail or industrial facilities.

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Mr. Logsdon is proving he can’t work with anyone in the city or out of the city. He’s whining about someone bringing up his occupation as a utility lineman. It’s as clear as the nose on your face Coweta County is exploiting us. Tyrone is angry over the poor excuse for an annexation called the West Village. Fayette County won’t even give him the time of day about getting our taxes back for fire people we aren’t using. After viewing this constant drain in our leadership, I’m wondering how in the world did this guy survive as a colonel in the U.S. Army?

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Our illustrious Mayor Logsdon has proven to be the ultimate wolf is sheep’s clothing. There was the tax-cutting promise (read his lips) and then a tax increase followed. There was the “zero balance” budgeting and toeing the line on spending, and then he wants to more than double his salary and pay for bicycle races while he cuts employee compensation at the same time. He told senior citizens anything we wanted to hear and would pull the rug out from under us a month or so later. The overwhelming response to the question of annexation in a city survey was “don’t annex” but he’s continuing to push a terrible annexation plan on the Westside. There was his “TDK is the right thing to do” and Coweta County has proven it’s the wrong thing to do, but he still wants to go ahead with it. He promised to keep Peachtree City the same wonderful place it has always been by following the land use plan and then he tries to sells city-owned park land and promote a slew of new big box stores. He promised leadership and then he doesn’t listen to a darn thing you have to say. And if you do speak up like the poor PTCCA gentleman, he’ll cut you down in front of the audience. There has to be something we can do as residents.

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I would be remiss if I forgot to commend Peachtree City Civic Association President Paul Van’t Hof for his courage and professional demeanor at the last city council meeting. He didn’t deserve the remarks thrown at him by Harold Logsdon, but he remained calm and stayed on point: opposing TDK. Mayor Logsdon talks about leadership, but Paul Van’t Hof truly displayed leadership. Thanks for a job well done, Paul. Don’t hold your breath waiting for an apology from the mayor.

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The city employees of Peachtree City are going to get the “Delta layoff treatment” one department at a time. Giving the jobs to private vendors means less accountability, more turnover and poor service. Just ask anyone who has been frustrated out of their mind trying to get tech support from someone in Bangalore, India.

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The Tyrone Neighborhood Alliance people hit the bulls-eye years ago when they said the Town Council would break their pledge of not asking for more sewer capacity. We should have listened and booted Sheryl Lee at the last election. Last time the council used the excuse of needing sewer for the local school, but they gave it to the new John Wieland subdivision instead. It’s time to dump Mike Smola for good. We need some good honest people to run for the Town Council to help Grace and Gloria.

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Congratulations, Tyrone. You now have a Zestos. With everything else coming into town you are now a.k.a. Forest Park, Jr. Keep it up. Your giving Little Riverdale (oops, my bad), Fayetteville, a run for their money. Next stop, PTC.

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Outlawing illegal drugs took illegal drugs off the street. Outlawing immigration stopped immigration. Outlawing discrimination halted discrimination. If we wish to stop something in America, we outlaw it. It works every time, right? Any person who believes that outlawing guns will take guns out of the hands of criminals and make life safer for the rest of us is already a victim, a victim of blindness and retardation. Violent crime using handguns in Australia has skyrocketed since the gun ban went into effect. That would never happen in America because we are smarter than the rest of the world. If you don’t believe it, just ask your neighborhood spineless, liberal, know-it-all. The time is rapidly approaching when every individual is going to have to accept responsibility for the safety and security of their own family and property and stop depending on the government to do it for them.

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All you sheep who think fighting back is just terrible and the answer is confiscation of all the good guys’ guns need to remember that the only hijacked flight that didn’t reach its target on 9-11 was taken down because the heroes on board fought back instead of “just giving the bad guys what they want and they’ll leave us alone.”

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The logic to remove guns because “guns” kill people is like saying we should take away cars because people die behind the wheel of a vehicle. Guns do not kill, people kill. What we need is for parents to be held accountable for the actions of their children. Children need supervision, rules, direction, education and most importantly parents who are there to guide them so they do not turn to crime and violence. Kids need to be taught that dying is real, violence is real; life is not a video game where you get another chance to play the game a second time. The tragedy at Virginia Tech is horrible and as a parent I cannot think of anything worse than losing my child. However, it was not the gun that killed those people; it was a very sick young man who held the gun and pulled the trigger that killed the innocent students and faculty. His weapon of choice was a gun; it could easily have been an explosive device, or other means to inflict his violent rage on others. If you are looking to lay blame, look to this very disturbed young man.

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I am writing in response to the parent/educator that is concerned about the lack of homework that is assigned “at a high school off of Hwy. 74 South.” I feel this person has become overly anxious about this issue and should try to focus on it less. A school can be just as exemplary and outstanding academically, as Starr’s Mill is, without necessarily assigning a heavy homework load. Much learning and hard work takes place during classes. My son is a freshman at Starr’s Mill and I am glad he is not weighed down with a ton of homework every night. He has study skills which were established several years ago. He often has several projects to do at home and he also has to study for tests, but he does not have hours of homework every night. I am so happy that he has time to fully participate in the extra-curricular activities that this wonderful school has to offer. He is able to attend marching and symphonic band practices, Relay For Life meetings, Beta Club meetings and take part in track, without the added stress of coming home to a huge pile of homework every night. Success in college and in life, the ability to problem-solve and “think out of the box” in a job does not depend on whether you worked on assignments for hours every night at home. Starr’s Mill students will be more prepared for college and the real world (“Be able to work and feed the Social Security system,” as the parent wrote last week) if they not only are academically smart, but also well-rounded individuals who are exposed to a wide range of activities and experiences.

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The contra-flow traffic pattern proposed for downtown Fayetteville in the April 25 issue is one of the craziest ideas I’ve seen lately. Maybe the geniuses could explain the brilliance of this plan to me, but it looks like another excuse to put up more traffic lights. Left turns will probably be easier, but what about turning right? The reason for the Atlanta area’s reputation for bad traffic has become very clear to me: The roads are not designed for efficient flow, and a bunch of signals are thrown up in an effort to compensate. When a major thoroughfare like Hwy. 54 is run through the middle of a town, with a traffic light at every intersection, what do you think the flow will be like? (Hwy. 54 is not a highway. How can a two-lane road with signals all over it, like Hwy. 74 through Peachtree City, be called a “highway”? Must be one of those Southern expressions.) The only way to improve the flow in Fayetteville is to get the lights off Hwy. 54. Perhaps the downtown loop could be made into a large, square traffic circle.

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When will the Mrs. Winner’s in Fayetteville be put out of its misery? The outside of the building looks like it’s been closed for a long time; check out the roof. The last time I went inside, which was many, many years ago, it was dirty and gross. It is an eyesore and I’m surprised to notice it’s still open every time I pass by and there’s no way I’d get anything to eat from there either.

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Rev. Epps, I agree wholeheartedly with everything you say. There is not a person alive on this planet whose relatives have not been hurt in some way by others. That seems to be part of life. However, that’s not the point. What’s happening today is that once an apology is on the record, then the real objective will be revealed, namely demanding reparations. The apology is just a smokescreen. They couldn’t care less about an apology. What they really want is reparations: money. And that needs to be nipped in the bud.

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If a pregnant woman sneaks into a sports arena and has a baby, do the baby and parents get life-time free passes to all arena events? Yeah, free parking, too.

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Children born in the U.S. to diplomats legally here do not automatically become U.S. citizens. But children born to illegal aliens do automatically become U.S. citizens.
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The U.S. is “ready for a multilingual President”? The language of corruption is universal: “Tell them what they want to hear and then do what you want.”

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When our elected officials are flaccid and limp on meaningful border security, think of your phone call as a dose of ”citizenship Viagra.”

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Wholesome values guide us toward contentment, which is greater than happiness. And government can’t give us those values.