Here we go again with the school calendar. Having grown up in a part of the country where we didn’t start school until after Labor Day, let me say it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Do you like having your kids out of school by Memorial Day? If you start school in September, it will have to run to the end of June; there’s no way around it. Make the start date any later and people will start complaining about kids going to school in June when they should be out enjoying their summers and family vacations. By starting in early August, the semester break falls nicely before the Christmas break. It’s not much fun when you have to study for mid-term exams over Christmas, knowing you’ll have to take those tests in January when you get back. If you want a shorter school year, get rid of the ridiculous week off in February.

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In response to the letter regarding the vote on FCBOE school calendars, do you realize the number of school days are set by the state? Should school start on the dates you suggest, school will then last into late June when families across the country are having vacations, family reunions, etc., as you mention. If you do not yet have children in high school, it is so much better to have the semester end prior to Christmas break rather than carry over for end of semester papers and testing in January. If you would check across the country, there are many school systems on calendars more restricted than our local school calendar, including those that start earlier than we do. The school board has to make decisions for what is best for the entire student population. They have taken away three days from Thanksgiving in response to parent input so that school can start later. That is also a family time and now many of us will not be able to go home for Thanksgiving in that length of time. The number of school days will not change, so we can go through June and miss a month of summer or start in August and miss a month of summer. But by starting in August it is more beneficial to the older students.

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Attention, local school officials of Fayette County. The word is out that some of your schools have mold again this year. I’m a parent in the school system and I say please do something about this and remove any old carpet. I forgot you all only keep up the top notch schools first and the lower class ones just have to suffer. Maybe more lawsuits will grab somebody attention.

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Eric Maxwell did not say getting rid of [County Attorney Bill] McNally was a goal. He said that cost effectiveness and accountability was a goal. I am not impressed with any of these former commissioner letter writers. Don’t know Barronton. Wonder who the heck he is. The rest of them either got voted out of office, got nailed for a residency violation and cost us a special election or got in trouble with the law. What a motley crew. Hey, George, the FDIC is still laughing over the fact that you paid more than market value for Stonewall Village. Cal Beverly is right. Everytime you built something, McNally cashed in, without any disclosure or bids. Guys, we are interested in local government, just not you. That’s why we voted four of you out of office. With friends like these, why does Bill McNally need enemies?

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Now that Bill McNally is gone as county attorney, we need to work on getting rid of his separated-at-birth twin Dick Cheney as Vice President. Fayette County is better off with McNally gone. The U.S. would be better off with Cheney and Bush gone.

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Fortune 500 businesses demand team play. Government should be no different. The Fayette County government should be no different. Take for example John DeCotis of the school board. He is rarely heard from because he works as a team player. The McNally, Fox firm has demonstrated the opposite of team play this past week. When the commission, including McNally’s friend and Chamber associate Jack Smith, voted to create an in-house lawyer, they allowed McNally to continue to perform outside work. McNally responded with a letter to the editor from numerous retired commissioners in support of McNally and highly critical of the business decision by the commission. Businesses cannot allow for disloyal and insubordinate employees. The McNally firm should be removed as outside counsel.

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Lo and behold, Greg Dunn made the paper again. This time he was pulling strings and urging on his puppet, Peter Pfeifer, along with Jack Smith (votes like Linda Wells) and Robert Horgan to defeat Heritage Christian Church in their second bid to connect to the PTC sewerage system. Granted, Christians have the ability to create a stink like any other group, but they have grown accustomed to a merciful God that infinitely forgives the stink of man. PTC is not quite as forgiving. The interesting insight is that Greg Dunn agreed with the split decision that defeated the Christian’s efforts, and his presence was not at all surprising since he is the grand master of stink. Dunn kept a humdinger of a stink stirred up in Fayette County for eight years which cost the taxpayers a fortune and lingers to this day. In comparison, the sickening onion odor in North Fayette was like the invigorating aroma of fresh spring daisies.

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I totally agree with the teacher who wrote last week about the supposed “top notch” schools in Fayette County. My guess is that she was an elementary school teacher since she referred to the CRCTs. I am a high school teacher at the first high school in the county. For newcomers, that’s Fayette County High. The importance of higher test scores and the ever famous AYP seem to be more important to administrators. Teachers are working so hard to meet the goals the county sets for them and they are great teachers, but are getting beaten down with “state” expectations, very little time and discipline issues. The competition between the high schools is over the top. Teachers are teaching to the test, not how they want to teach, and critical issues (topics) that were once deemed important to learning are not taught anymore. We can’t compete with test scores when the population of each school is so diverse. And I don’t mean by color or nationality here, I mean academic abilities. Student motivation is critical. The student population has changed over the years and students seem to be less motivated then ever before. We don’t have parent involvement like McIntosh, Starr’s Mill or Whitewater has and that is very important to the success of a school. What can we do as a community to change this and make all of our schools the best that they can be? The state won’t let up on pressure to do better, the county will say keep pushing, the administration will say, “We can do it!” Can we?

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I can’t imagine Harold Logsdon getting paid to be a financial consultant. Logsdon has come up with two additional ways to increase our already rising taxes. First, he wants a pair of $1 million (each) soccer fields. Second, he wants to double his pay. He keeps saying we are at build-out, so why on earth would we spend $1 million apiece for new soccer fields, not to mention asking why they cost so much? It’s too bad he doesn’t let us vote on his pay raise in November to test how his constituents feel about him.

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Our infamous city council in Peachtree City is so dim-witted all five of them couldn’t produce enough energy to light a five-watt bulb. The editor was right to question what our future holds, especially with TDK. And here we go with their 100-percent pay raises again. They are deceitful and greedy. At the candidates debate, Mayor Logsdon refused to attend, Steve Brown handed out packets of all Logsdon’s printed campaign statements. Here’s a quote attributed to Logsdon from Oct. 5, 2005: “It’s obvious to me that there is more that can be done as mayor to provide leadership in more efficient uses of your tax dollars ... I would like to propose common-sense business principles in finding ways to control spending ... I want to bring the efficiency of better business practices to our government structure. This includes controlling spending ... I want to use my experience in financial planning and business operations as well as my experience as a certified auditor to better manage our budget and reduce the tax burden on our citizens ... Peachtree City needs leadership with experience in financial management and planning, and I have the experience necessary to provide that leadership for our community.” Well we’ve gotten tax increases and city council pay increases to go along with an expensive bicycle race that lasted all of one hour and 45 minutes. Brown said at the time Logsdon was promising whatever would get him elected and, boy, he was right. This is a bunch of garbage.

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Oh, yeah, Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett is a real genius. She wants more cash in her pocket for her part-time, three-day a month job. She says it’ll encourage more people to run for elected office. Does she think we’re total idiots? In the last Peachtree City election, around 10 people ran for three positions. Does it really look like people aren’t running because of the pay? If their pay was solely based on merit the mayor and his four sheep would owe us about $5,000 each. For a group that vowed to roll back taxes, they keep heaping more and more expenses on the balance sheet. Do they even understand how budgets work?

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Attention, all you drunken heifers who congregated on the open area left of the stage at the B. B. King concert on Friday night: Shut up. Mr. King spent a lot of time sharing stories with us and your constant and loud blabbering made it difficult to hear and understand what he was saying. You were very disrespectful. If you appreciated what Mr. King was doing, as would be implied by you wanting to be closer, than show it by your behavior. We pay money to see and hear acts perform, not your mindless, incessant blabbering during a performance. And that goes for you self-absorbed attendees in your regular seats. You want conversation? Go somewhere else. It is not all about you. Show some respect.

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What’s behind Tyrone’s all-out push to redevelop its downtown? Is it a sincere desire to create a living utopia? Is it to help bring in more customers for small businesses? Is it to provide senior housing in a convenient setting for retiring baby boomers? Or a euphoric effort to return to the good old days of small town America? No, it’s what’s behind everything today — government money. To be sure, the preceding reasons are used to suck in an unknowing public, but in fact it’s an Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) program to provide federal funds (your tax money) to towns for redevelopment called Living Centers Initiative (LCI) started in 1999. Like all great government ideas, taxpayer money is wasted on endless evaluations and reports, unneeded or useless projects and most of all money spent on administering the program which includes hiring more government employees and raising salaries of people like Tyrone Town Manager Barry Amos. Most local officials with the responsibility of providing the legal okay to proceed are not clearly informed. When Tyrone’s Council recently passed its new 20-year Comprehensive Plan, one councilwoman asked, “Why do we need a comprehensive plan?” She was told the law requires it. That was a misrepresentation. Comprehensive plans are only a requirement to participate in the ARC program to obtain the federal money. The worst thing about the program is that it requires local municipalities to change their land use codes, which takes away property rights, closes down existing businesses and takes property from elderly people without any compensation. That’s exactly what recently happened to one disabled lady in Tyrone. Although the council received numerous letters regarding this unlawful travesty, they didn’t even bother to respond.

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What has happened to the Kroger in Kedron Village? It used to be my favorite place to shop, now I dread going, knowing that the shelves won’t be adequately stocked, the floor will be slippery (my son fell as we entered the store last week), the prices won’t be correct on many items, and the checkout process will be akin to the bread lines in ye old Russia. I understand help is hard to keep, but maybe they need to address the reason the kids don’t stay. Blaming it on them being spoiled and privileged just isn’t good enough anymore. At least it won’t be good enough once it starts to cut into the profits as people start shopping elsewhere.

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With school approaching soon here’s a heads-up to all parents of children attending Flat Rock Middle School. Make sure your child understands that the principal or vice principal will suspend your child for three days if a fight breaks out involving your child, regardless of whether or not your child fights back. Now what is this teaching our children? That’s the good old zero tolerance policy for you.

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The ghost story about the Southside Theater Guild is quite spine tingling. The recordings of mysterious human voices in the night really caught my attention, especially the one that said, “Shh, they’re calling me.” Trust me, there are many other haunted structures in Fayette County. I have heard those same horrifying words whispered many times at the home improvement stores in Fayetteville whenever a customer no-service associate is being paged over the intercom.

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To a certain councilman who has a business on Beauregard Boulevard: Why do you have a small white sign near the road with nothing written on it? Someone even took the time to move this seemingly worthless sign when the path was put in. Every time I drive by I look to see if it’s still blank. Please appease me and either write something on this sign or remove it. Thank you.

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To my neighbors in The Colonnade Subdivision who choose to write in to The Citizen about their issues rather than simply picking up a telephone, try this: The next time my children and their friends are in the path of your vehicle, roll down your window and nicely ask them to move their “skateboards and skateboard ramps” to one side of the road so that vehicles may pass. That’s what I do. You might find, if you gave them a chance, that these skateboarders are a respectful, well-behaved group that will be eager to get out of your way. I wish some adults would show as much respect. Finally, you might be interested to know that several of our neighbors have commented that they very much enjoy seeing them there, particularly following your mean-spirited column last Wednesday.

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Hey, DD (as in Dixie Diva): It is Scots-irish and Scotch is whiskey distilled in Scotland, as you’ve been told many times before and are too stupid to acknowledge and implement. Are you really a blond? Your column is a waste of paper and ink.

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On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, Fayette County deputies and Fayetteville police confronted a woman who was sitting in her car with a gun threatening to kill herself. She pointed the handgun at the officers and then placed it to her head. The deputies and officers would have been justified in shooting the woman, and I suspect many overzealous police would have done just that. But our deputies and police are not ordinary. They did the right and honorable thing. They were able to diffuse a dangerous situation without anyone getting hurt, including the perpetrator. They placed their own lives at risk to save this woman’s life. Most of the incident was caught on camera. If you want to see deputies Thomas Mindar, Ryan Phillips, Lamar Dyar and all the other fine deputies and police in action, go to www.wsbtv.com and enter search for “woman slams police cruiser.” Regardless of the negative comments we sometimes hear about our Sheriff’s Department and police, the proof is in the pudding.

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Let me get this straight. A pompous Yankee immigrates to Georgia, probably illegally, and has the audacity to write to The Citizen, a great local newspaper, and insult Southerners by stating that we sound come-from-under-a-rock dumb when we say, “Y’all.” How dumb is that? Such haughtiness is exactly the reason that, in the South, it is perfectly acceptable — and quite common — to precede the word Yankee with an expletive. And furthermore, we do teach our children to speak correctly. We also teach them to speak with clarity and conviction. In fact, the number one best-selling children’s book at Miss Magnolia Blossom’s Book Barn and Rasslin’ Arena is titled, “Did Y’all See Spot Run and Bite the Arrogant Yankee?”

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I am a Democrat. I’m not male, black, or Hispanic and have lived here 15 years, so I make your blanket statement about who are Democrats wrong. There are more just like me living in Fayette County. Before you get hurt patting yourself on your back, just look around at what the Republican county leaders have done to Fayette in the last 10 years. It appears no one can say no to any kind of building permit or density issue. The “good ol’ boy” system is alive and well here.

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I feel I must express my “gratitude” to Mr. Wieland for the donation of bulletproof vests he so generously gave to the Tyrone Police Department. I have been a resident of Tyrone for over 20 years and not once in our history have we ever needed the extra security the vests offer. “Thank you” for providing our town with not only one development but yet two that have now made it necessary for the safety of our police officers to own bulletproof vests. I must assume that at the completion of your second development you will again donate more vests because I’m sure crime will again increase and our officers will need even more protection. While you’re in the giving mood, why not donate enough to cover the salary of another officer because I’m sure our town will need that as well.

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I had several cans of Castleberry chili in my pantry when the recall came. I took them back to Kroger today where I originally purchased them and I was told that it was on sale and they could only refund the sale price, which was half of what I paid for it. How can food that has been recalled because it contains botulism and has been taken off the shelf be on sale? Looks like Kroger is trying to make a little more money off the public in addition to their already sky-high prices.

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Top 10 reasons why police question pedestrians in Fayette County: 1. Riding a camel on the cart paths. 2. Resembles Stopnpop the pill pusher. 3. Covered in red dye. 4. Carrying a crowbar and slim-jim. 5. Schlepping around looking lost for a full 8-hour work day. 6. Jogging in a hooded sweatshirt and ski mask in 90-degree weather. 7. Walking like a sailor on a slick deck in a storm-tossed sea. 8. Pupils look like purple plums from California. 9. Peering into parked cars and then looking around to see who’s watching. 10. Not doing anything wrong. Looks like a preacher; sure sign of an Irish Traveler.

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