I would like to take this opportunity to publically declare my candidacy for the Peachtree City Council, Post 1.

Why run for the PTC Council?

Simple. PTC is my home. We picked PTC 20 years ago because of its vision. That vision is being threatened.

I am 56 years old, married to Cathy Haddix for 35 years and have one 26-year-old son. A Navy vet, intelligence field, I worked oversea, on the Russian theater and Vietnam. I have been a supervisor at Bethlehem Steel, an adult Scout leader, 4-H program creator, administrator and coach and small business owner for 20 years, doing stock and custom-made carbide tooling sales, service and consulting to the wood and related products industry.

Currently, I am semi-retired.

So, I have the experience and time to take on being a council member in a productive and meaningful way.

Mark Harman, the newly appointed council member, has taken the position that excess sewage capacity can be sold to entities outside of Peachtree City such as Tyrone.

Tyrone is currently getting 250,000 thousand gallon-a-day capacity from Fairburn. Fairburn wants it back.

Tyrone only uses somewhere around 135,000 of that capacity. But they want 500,000 from PTC?

Why? Because developers, such as Wieland, want to keep developing around Tyrone. It is said Wieland wants to do a very large development, just north of Tyrone.

Per the federal government, the average person uses 80 to 100 gallons of water a day.

They also say, for Georgia, the average home size is 2.68 people.

So, do the math. On approximately 250 gallons per day, were looking at around 3,000 homes in Tyrone.

How many cars does that translate to? At least 6,000. How many will be on Ga. Highway 74 and coming to PTC to shop?

Also consider, he is talking about giving access to more than just Tyrone. With an excess capacity of around 760,000 gallons, that is a lot of new development.

In my questioning at the special council meeting of Aug. 13, I was told Wilshire [rezoning] had not been approved. (Please go to donhaddix.com for further details on this issue.)

But it was not denied that, initially, Wilshire had been endorsed and promoted. Nor that residents did not intervene to fight against this shopping complex.

Same with Lowe’s. The first moves were toward planning and approval. But citizens intervened and demanded the big box ordinance be enforced.

It is fact that developments, such as Wilshire, The Seasons and Lowe’s, had been backed and given prior personal acceptance before the first legal proposals had actually been submitted.

The council also said that my statement of not being advocates for PTC, as regards Board of Education and Coweta, was in error, that they had [advocates].

I told them the citizens didn’t know it. And I wondered that if there had been such intervention, why were they the only ones who knew? And what were they defining as intervention?

I was asked what I would do to get the message out and dispel many of the misunderstandings now existing.

My reply was I had, years ago, suggested a moderated forum be added to the city website. There people could ask questions and state frustrations, as issues, not personalities. The council and/or representatives could answer these concerns and issues, if they chose to.

These are but some examples of why I am running.

In a nutshell, my positions are:

1. No tie-ins to the sewage system.

2. Advocacy. Don’t tell people nothing can be done because the council has no authority in other jurisdictions. Advocate for them as the most powerful voice in PTC.

3. Big boxes? Resist them. Make them prove their worth. They do not create jobs that benefit PTC. They create jobs from which paychecks are taken elsewhere to other communities, who gain the benefits of the property and sales taxes. And increase the burden on taxpayer-maintained infrastructure.

4. Business growth? Seek and promote businesses that would have employees that live and shop here in PTC. Let PTC gain from the sales and and property taxes.

5. Listen to the people.

6. Employee morale? Cutting benefits may help the budget, but it hurts the workers and their performance.

7. Tree buffers? Where was the council concerning the clear cutting of Hwy. 74? Advocacy, again.

8. Golf cart paths? Increase security and enforce safe usage.

9. [Intersection at] 74/54? The intersection is already obsolete, per known current and future growth. This form of intersection has limits. It has already been exceeded.

10. Keep promises? How many promises were made and immediately broken from the last election? Even when not the desired answer, do not promise what cannot be kept.

Those who know me know I am plain-spoken. You will know where I stand.

This is an important election. So, if you like what I say, please support me, in your discussions and voting.

Don Haddix

Candidate for Post 1, Peachtree City Council

donhaddix.com

Peachtree City, Ga.