To the person watering their lawn with sprinklers on Ga. Highway 92 between Seay and Hilo roads: Hello! There is a total outdoor watering ban (excluding new construction for the first 30 days) in Fayette County. There is a reason for it. Do you not ingest any news at all, or is the grass between your split rail fence and the road (otherwise known as the county right of way) more important than people having water to drink? People driving by your house do not care how nice the grass outside your fence is when no one is able to water; they are angered and insulted. I drive by your house everyday and will report you every single time I see those sprinklers going.

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I think that this would be the ideal forum to report all the local watering ban violators including the sneaky middle of the night and the brazen prime time ones, too. (You can spot the former from their telltale drenched curbs in the morning.)

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I am confused about the rules concerning water restrictions in Fayette County. We have our own lakes that supply our water needs with a few exceptions in the past. What authority says we are in the same category as Atlanta? We should be restricted here due to the drought — no need to run our lakes dry before we run out of water also. Atlanta should have restricted their water usage months ago, including business and golf courses. Apparently, our governor and local officials don’t like to mess with business first, just lawn watering, which improves the situation about 10-15 percent only. My question is this: What is the plan if the pressure quits? Is it not more important for people to get rationed water to drink and with which to cook before industry? Jobs cost temporarily should have less priority than people. Pay them unemployment immediately until there is enough water for industry. Either industry or people will have to ship in water from Michigan or someplace — I choose industry to do so. I know the state will lose income if industry reduces, but so what if they have to borrow and also reduce payroll? We come first.

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Am I getting this right? They want to close East Fayette Elementary School, but we don’t have enough schools as it is? In whose book does that seem like a sane option? This seems utterly ridiculous. We need to keep it and build instead of waiting to see if our constant growth continues. If they close it, do they plan to destroy the oldest school in town or will the historical society do the right thing and save it?

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Beware those of you who go to the local Emergency Room at Piedmont Fayette. I know of three or four people who have gone there for chest pains. Luckily, the pains were not the heart. However, they stop there. Do they not know that other major illnesses have chest pains as major symptoms? In each of the stated cases, the patient had to return to the ER with the result being removal of gall bladder, some almost too late. In one case the end result was fatal. If you go there, do not leave until gall bladder is also ruled out.

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I am wondering if the Peachtree City Police Department spends any time enforcing our handicapped parking ordinance? I have a handicapped license on my car and constantly see cars without tags and people who apparently borrow someone else’s window tag parked in these spaces. Could we possibly get our police to spend a little time ticketing these cars?

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PTC City Councilman wannabe Dar Thompson stated in last Tuesday’s Rotary Club open forum, “What’s the difference between putting up an 89,000 square-foot store, Kohl’s, or four stores at 25,000 square feet each? I believe a Kohl’s would bring about $100,000 in taxes to the city each year.” Two differences immediately come to mind: First, because of setbacks and retention pond requirements, four 25,000 square-foot buildings would require more land, and thus would pay more property taxes than an 89,000 SF, or even a 100,000 SF, building. Also, an 89,000 SF vacant box is more of a blight, and harder to re-lease, than four smaller buildings, one of which might even contain a health club.

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“Redevelopment” is rezoning. For what reason? [Online poster] Mudcat is dead on correct about Carriage Lane: There will be other weeping and whining subdivisions from this “redevelopment” process which is nothing other than rezoning. Other folks will soon see the same trend in their neighborhoods. With TDK being connected to Coweta County, it is only a matter of time before Crosstown is widened and they put in red lights all the way to Ga. Highway 54. Then Landmark School will sell to an aggressive, Y-Knot-approved developer and you will have the same request being made at Carriage Lane. Maybe it will be a gas station and a liquor store. Jennings Yard and Robinson Bend Estates are going to have an eyesore right across the road. Do you want to see what the grand Logsdon plan is? Go look at the corner of Peachtree Parkway and Crosstown, the corner that doesn’t have a blade of grass left. The problem all started with City Hall having no capacity to say no and especially not to churches, including Steve Brown wanting to give away our zoning to the church on Peachtree Parkway. Carriage Lane today; Crosstown tomorrow.

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It is quite disturbing to a long-time Peachtree City resident to learn a developer wants to buy three existing home sites which sit on 14 acres and replace them with 46 cluster homes. Balderdash, I say! The lots are located adjacent to the Methodist church on Robinson Road and are currently zoned estate residential. They are heavily wooded. You may not even realize the houses are there when you pass by. Because Peachtree City is out of available land, the developer wants to rezone to high density, chop down all the trees, and plop 46 houses down. Sure, he can ask. But our government leaders must say no. This would set an awful precedent should the Planning Commission approve this rezoning. It would give any developer the green light to target entire subdivisions for redevelopment. The possibilities are endless. Peachtree City is a planned community with a master plan. You cannot throw out the master plan every time a developer wants the city to change the rules in his favor. Let me repeat. Peachtree City is a planned community with a master plan. Mr. Developer, take the dollar signs that have you intoxicated on greed to another town. Do you live on Robinson Road? Do you travel on Robinson Road? Then you have a stake in this fight. Do you live in Peachtree City? Then you have a stake in this fight. Suppose the next homes a developer targets are near your own, and would dramatically change the neighborhood. Tell the Peachtree City Planning Commission and City Council NO. NO to 46 new homes. NO to 100 or more new residents. NO to 100 or more cars on Robinson Road. Let them hear from you prior to the session on Oct. 22. Then attend and fight to save our city.

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Peachtree City citizens, be sure and attend the City Council meeting this coming Thursday night at 7 p.m. The night’s entertainment will feature the mayor and the planning commissioner, along with a couple of city councilmen who are totally under the mayor’s thumb. You will see how this group of people push through the rezoning of the Stephens tract so that Dominion Partners can start building their upscale senior complex at your expense. For those of you who have never attended a council meeting, you are in for a treat much better than anything you would be watching on TV. First you will see just how much control the developers have over the mayor and his planning commissioner. And if you (the taxpayers) don’t start getting involved, they (mayor and company) will next rezone your backyards and put in some public housing. And I mean your backyard. I guess the only upside to that is you will not have to mow that part of your yard. Also entertaining is to watch all of the city managers skirt around any and all issues that will effect you and your city’s well-being. You will see just how incompetent many of these people are and you will understand why they do not want the city to adopt an at-will employment policy for these contract employees. You will also be amazed at the answers given to any pertinent questions that are asked. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the answer is, “I don’t know.” They can get away with that answer because, by you not attending these meetings, they are not held accountable. People of PTC, wake up and get involved while you still can protect the future of this city. I hope to see some new faces at this week’s meeting so that we all can make a difference.

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The tree butchers at Flat Creek Golf Club have lost my patronage. Let them go broke; the city can buy it for green space.

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Please allow me to share an experience that I had not long ago at the Braelinn Kroger. I had just paid for all of my things, when the bagger found a forgotten item that hadn’t been rung up. By this time, the cashier had already started scanning the groceries of the woman who was next in line. As I was waiting for her transaction to be completed, the woman told the cashier to ring up my forgotten item onto her ticket. I told her that it wasn’t necessary, but she insisted with gladness and told me to “pay it forward,” which I fully intend to do when the opportunity arises. If that generous woman is reading this, I would like to thank her again for her graciousness and for showing me how good it feels to have a complete stranger do something so nice for me. It was a good reminder that a simple act of kindness can go a long way in this crazy, heavy world where it seems people only look out for themselves. Most of the entries to this column involve complaints about being cut off in traffic, or unsportsmanlike conduct at a youth sporting event, or the foul language that the kids use, or the crookedness of the local politicians. So, it’s encouraging to know that there are still such benevolent people out there. It also helps me to remember that a courtesy shown not only benefits the recipient but also the one who bestows the courtesy. Thank you again, kind stranger.

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Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. One wonders if the Republicans will ask their friends on the Supreme Court to take this prize away from him as well.

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I think Hillary has made universal health insurance harder than it needs to be. The “keep it simple, stupid” approach would work best and wrest the issue from the cold, greedy hands of the politicians who think they never have enough money to throw at a problem. Simply put 1 percent, or more if necessary, from everyone’s pay (part-time workers to CEOs) into a big health insurance pot of money. Give every man, woman, and child an equal share of this fund in the form of a voucher that they can use to purchase the best insurance policy that works for them. To cover the cost of this universal insurance, everyone’s income tax bracket would be reduced by the same percent taken from their pay (i.e., folks in the 15 percent tax bracket that contribute 1 percent of their pay to the federal health insurance program would have their bracket reduced to 14 percent, a 2 percent contribution would drop the bracket to 13 percent, etc.). A few coverage requirements may be necessary. For example, people under 35 might have to have pregnancy coverage. Folks over 35 might have to carry heart, cancer, and diabetes coverage. This program would probably drive medical costs down in the market place as consumers shop for the best combination of quality, responsiveness, and cost that meets their needs. Politicians must be in the program and it must be “pay as you go” with no additional funding from the general budget.

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Reference Cal Thomas’s article entitled, “Excuse me — all worship same God?” For centuries there was a war between monotheism and polytheism and eventually monotheism won. Since then a war within monotheism has raged for the minds of men between Christianity, Judaism and Muslims with no end in sight. So many innocent people have died because each of these religions say they are right and the others are wrong and God is on our side. The central message in your article, Mr. Thomas, adds fuel to the fire because it is your position that each of the major religions have separate and distinct gods. Personally I do not support or believe in any religion because they are all based on supernatural events and their degree of intolerance is unacceptable to any intelligent and rational, thinking person.

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Shame on the local businessman who stood up during the Q & A section of the Tyrone candidates’ forum and badgered a candidate about a several-year-old quote on his faith. After you successfully got the candidate to stumble over the answer, you then proceeded to ASSUME that you spoke for the “faithful of Tyrone,” saying that you were sure they would appreciate the candidate’s answer. As one of the “faithful of Tyrone,” I can assure you that you most certainly do NOT speak for me, nor did I appreciate your obviously set-up attempt to discredit this qualified candidate. How arrogant of you to speak for anyone but your disgruntled self. Your question was way out of line and marked the low point of an otherwise well-conducted forum.