I am a Fayette County teacher and resident, and I am hopping mad. I have read several comments to the effect that all the school employees voted for the SPLOST. I did NOT vote for the SPLOST, and it’s not because I no longer have children attending Fayette County schools. I happen to believe that our trusted officials should manage our money responsibly. My fellow teachers, media specialists, school nurses, paraprofessionals, custodians, and cafeteria workers, who run the everyday workings of our school, are managing our resources responsibly. We have been turning out lights, turning off computers and monitors, leaving our building by 5 o’clock, all at the command of our goliath administration. We are enduring the awkwardness and incompatibilities of the cheaper OpenOffice programs. We are recycling and/or limiting use of paper. We are threatened daily, sometimes several times a day, with losing our jobs and benefits. We have been told we would lose the paraprofessionals; now, that’s a genius plan. In no other situation that I can conceive does an organization get such a bang for its buck than the schools do with paraprofessionals. For the pathetic, below-poverty-level pay they receive, they provide more direct student service and perform many of the least desirable duties in the school. Eliminating the school nurses was another brilliant suggestion; perhaps the board can find a cheaper way to administer to, not only the daily minor aches and pains, but also the medicinal and medical needs of students with chronic, serious illnesses. And let’s not forget the original plan of nicely asking all the teachers to return their cost of living raises. I predicted then that the board would use that as a tactic to place the blame on our refusal to do so (recall that they asked ever so nicely and stated that assent would have to be 100 percent; by the way, it wasn’t even put up for a vote). Now, sure enough, two choices are presented: either a 2.5 percent pay cut or a 3.5 percent pay cut for virtually all employees (please define “virtually”). Either way, we, the taxpayers and the school employees, pay for the ineptitude of the board and the top-heavy administration. Indeed, why does our superintendent need TWO assistants? Why are we building two new schools when we can’t fill the ones we have? Why do we have 99 acres of land for sale? Why do we have very expensive computer programs of very limited use? I am just a simple teacher, and these are simple questions. Someone with more intimate knowledge of the goings-on of the board will undoubtedly enlighten me. I am frustrated, as are my colleagues. I speak for many of them when I say I love Fayette County children and their families; I love working in these schools. I want to be here; I am lucky to be here and don’t want to work anywhere else. But our board of education made decisions that got us in our present mess; it is time for THEM to behave responsibly. We, the employees and the taxpayers, have done all we can.

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As expected, the voting block of Logsdon, Boone, and Plunkett voted for another unwanted traffic signal on Ga. Highway 54. I sometimes wonder if the Peachtree City we all know and love will even exist as we know it by the time we’re able to vote these three buffoons out of office. I can hardly wait!

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What are the salaries of our beloved mayor and city manager? How much are our council members paid? How can I obtain this information? Perhaps we should put some freezes on these guys.

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Strange that Peachtree citizens must endure the axe to our budget so carefully put together last year. Now we’re discovering all sorts of ways to reduce it. Why wasn’t this done years ago? If we could have been saving $800,000 a year by replacing government-fed public service employees who mow our green areas with contractors, why wasn’t this done years ago? What other functions of government are we paying “public” employees for that can be outsourced for great savings? Perhaps replacing the financial office or the recreation department or the library staff with contractors can save us another million bucks. The city manager has an obligation to consider all of this and propose it if deemed cost saving.

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Year after year our city manager has proposed obvious wasteful expenses, not looking out for the good of the taxpaying citizens. He has not asked or acted on any request for cost savings in the years of plenty. Looking for every possible way to reduce the budget is a non-ending task that needs to be done with every single fiscal budget. The city council has let us down by not thinking ahead or calling on cost reduction ideas either. So we had a few million put away for times of shortfalls. If it could have been a few million and one, then it should have been acted on.

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I’m all for getting as many people off the public dole as possible. It costs us over and over again to pay for retirements and other benefits to these people. Contractors tell their employees to start their own 401k retirement plans instead of saying, “Stay with us 20 years and we’ll take care of you in retirement.” Balderdash! We need to end the government employee retirement system and make them live like the rest of us; i.e., save for your own. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of others who will take your job.

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Budget cut suggestion for Peachtree City: City Council Member Sturbaum seldom appears prepared for City Council meetings and almost never provides input or asks questions and always votes with Mr. Haddix. He should return the salary he receives from PTC and we’ll just give Don Haddix two votes for the price of one.

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On Aug. 21, 2008, Tyrone Finance Director Mary Sturm told the town council that the town was broke. Apparently from the posted minutes she left the town’s employment. On Feb. 6, 2009, Mayor Rehwaldt stated that the town has a $2 million reserve fund, and then the council votes to rehire Ms. Sturm. One of these statements on the town’s financial status must be wrong, and it is certainly clear that council doesn’t have a clue about finances.

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I love high school basketball and I am sitting here thinking how in the world the parents of the Starr’s Mill’s basketball team can put up with the coaching staff they have. I have no kids playing sports at the school, but I have watched a program get worse each of the last two years. It is time for a change at Starr’s Mill. The coach you have now treats the players like dirt and the AD can not see what is going on, so he should go also. The other night was senior night and I know one of the seniors who has started in the past saw about 30 seconds of playing time. After all, it was their night, not yours, coach. I will not be going to any more Starr’s Mill basketball games. There is another school in town to watch.

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SMHS students, basketball players, parents and fans: Many of you have published letters in the Free Speech column regarding your current basketball coaching situation. Bad coaches exist in all sports and at all levels, professional, college and high school. The pro and college teams get rid of bad coaches because they have a business to run. Unfortunately, high schools are controlled by tenure and the good old boy network. Your coach tries to model himself after the infamous Indiana coach Bob Knight; I believe the only part he seems to have copied is the tirades and player abuse. Your coach’s personality is not going to change; he will always be right, the players lazy and parents dumb. Any real change needs to come from your administration. As it applies to SMHS BB, the principal is only concerned with students standing on the bottom row of bleachers and yelling at the officials. Your AD sits on a folding chair with his arms crossed gazing onto the hardwood floor wondering what is happening to his once powerful football program. So I ask you, who should be held accountable for your failing basketball program? A young arrogant head coach? Definitely! A disconnected principal and athletic director? Absolutely! The superintendent’s office? Maybe. If you really want change, you must treat it like a business with your dollars or lack thereof. Administration, please step up and do the right thing: Remove “your” hand-picked head coach and publicly apologize to the past and current players, fans and parents for your lack of action.

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It is really sad when you go to the the chain donut shop not to be named and get stale donuts. My earliest memory of Sundays are after church going and getting fresh wonderful donuts. They were my favorite. Now, not only is the variety lacking, but the donuts are shipped in. No longer are they made on site. You pay over $8 for a dozen donuts there now, too. Why not just go to the gas station and get a box of Krispy Kremes; they’re cheaper and just as fresh.

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Everything that happened today, should have happened, because it did.

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Four horses were seen galloping eastbound on Ga. Highway 74 late Monday morning, Feb. 9. Tyrone police were trying to control the horses near the intersection of Dogwood Trail. The horses changed direction and started heading west down Hwy. 74 towards the interstate while traffic was backing up.

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So Sun Dried Tomato has closed? Another victim of “tax collectors with blue lights.” No one wants to dine in Tyrone. Whenever you leave any eatery that serves alcohol, you might as well drag raw meat by the lions’ cage. You get tailgated by the Crown Vic all the way to Peachtree Parkway. Not to mention the Tyrone cop who sits with his lights off at night in the gore of Hwy. 74 and Crestwood (a violation of Georgia vehicle code and a really dangerous thing to do). I’ve become so tired of Tyrone’s harassment, I’ve stopped shopping at Publix, CVS, Advanced Auto and the car wash even though they are on my way home from work, and I don’t dine anywhere in Tyrone. Keep it up, Tyrone, you’ll cement your status as a wide spot in the road with empty strip centers. You think fines will pay the bills, but sales tax and property tax are what sustains a quality town.

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I read in the previous issue of Free Speech that someone wants to destroy the BMX track in the woods behind the Kedron Fieldhouse. I frequent that area and I can personally say that there is not as much of a trash problem as implied. The erosion point is a valid issue, but what about all the forts that the local children, myself included, have built out of mud in the woods. Those are also erosion problems. Do you want the city to come and tear those down along with the BMX track? Plus, it is not an eyesore at all because you cannot see it unless you actually walk deep in the woods. There are far more destructive ways to spend your time than creating an elaborate BMX track from scratch. Anyway, if the person(s) that built the track are reading this and the track is eventually torn down, you can count me in to rebuild it.

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To allow a little insight on the “problem” in the woods by the Kedron Fieldhouse. First off, let’s travel across the lovely city of PTC, to McIntosh Trail/Kelly Drive where there’s a skatepark and a BMX track. Let’s take a closer look at these areas offered to the public for recreation. The skatepark has many problems, all of which has at one point or another been taken up with the park monitors or some other form of authority. The ramps are old, worn, and falling apart. Some bend and sway when you ride up them on a bike or skateboard. Now let’s go a little further to the BMX track, which has seemed to shrink, and fall apart over the last five years or so. OK, make the track more accessible to the youth, that’s understandable, but why does it seem that that’s all the owners went for? Or is it just the fact that these people think they know what’s best and then do the opposite. The first two straights have eroded into nothing more than piles of dirt, no defined lips or landings just mounds. They recently rebuilt a few jumps and the fourth straight. Again beginning on the second straight, there was a small table at the beginning which has now become a lump of clay with again no defined lip or landing. They did a double which has more shape than any of the other jumps on the first two straights. Now onto the fourth straight, what’s the reasoning behind this setup? Honestly, there seems to be no flow through that section now that they put the new jumps, all close with no runway, but I understand the setup from a race stand point. For the person who wanted to know how to put a stop to the problem in the Kedron area, above are some reasons as to why these things have happened as well as a few ways if you just use your imagination as to how to help out. Fix up what the city gave us. Oh, that’s right it’s not an all-American sport. We’re frowned upon for no good reason, which is why the BMX trails are where they are. Cops have visited the area and saw no problem with what we were doing. We’re being constructive and productive but thats not good enough for people anymore. What happened to getting kids outdoors to be productive? If it’s a problem then I understand why all the kids nowadays are getting plumper and seem to spend more time watching TV or playing a video game. I’m 20 years of age and I hate seeing how society is now. When I was raised half the crap that goes on today wouldn’t be tolerated. Technology is great, but I believe we are dehumanizing the youth and ourselves by allowing these inventions to have a huge part in how our day goes or how smoothly things run. Honestly, people, stop being stupid. As for the erosion problem, there is no problem. The jumps were dug around ditches, meaning the lower areas were ditches we shaped out to be a jump, which means the erosion you’re seeing is somehow put there by your own mind. The ditches lead down to a creek, which I’m sure they always did. We made sure that runoffs were in place, seeing how water puddles would cause problems to what we wanted. And the trash problem — if you had gone back there a year or so ago that same problem would still have been there because we encountered it too. We’ve done our part of cleaning up things, and still are. Do you honestly think we want a filthy looking area, where debris is all in the way, scattered about on jumps and landings and in the path ways? I’m sorry, but we’re better than that. Thank you Peachtree City, for your undying support of us, for forcing us away from areas where we once were welcome. Thank you so much for your unyielding concerns about all the unimportant things, and your constant complaints about any and or everything under the sun. No one has it as bad as those living in those nice houses scattered throughout the city. Who knew that the people who seem to have endless possibilities and decent jobs with their cool cars could have so much to complain about?

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Nay, nay, I say to the “Citizen Newspaper vs Fayette Daily News” Free Speecher. The Fayette Daily has two redeeming features: One, it comes on Thursday, which is the day the trash is picked up, so I can throw it right unto the empty can, and two, the plastic bag makes a great pooper picker-upper when I walk my dogs that morning.

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I saw a picture on the Yahoo search page of Obama standing at a podium and the caption underneath read, “Obama demands that rescued CEOs make no more than $500,000 per year.” I don’t think people understand the significance of the government setting pay for the private sector. Should the CEOs make more than $500,000? No, they should be bankrupted. The good bits of the company should have been sold off so new efficient companies could emerge. This is Capitalism 101. Was it going to be catastrophic? Was the world going to end? That’s certainly what I would have said if I was part of the problem and my livelihood was made from banking. All we have to do is let government set wages and they will prop up inefficient companies. Does this make sense to anyone? Now in the name of “catastrophic consequences,” we must spend a trillion dollars. I wonder what other freedoms in our capitalistic society we will have to surrender to avoid these “urgent and catastrophic” problems. And so it begins ...

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A certain class of people are always complaining that some people in our society want to redistribute the wealth by taking from the rich and giving to the poor. You hear very little about the super rich who get that way by raising prices to an astronomical level on the everyday commodities that the working people have to buy. So it’s okay for the rich to steal from the working class but it is not okay for the working class to want some of their hard-earned money back from the greedy company executives who are stealing it from them in the first place?

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More and more it seems that every position in government and industry must be filled with a woman or other minorities or else discrimination is screamed. In the meantime there is no one giving guidance and moral upbringing to the children of this country and immorality and crime are skyrocketing completely out of control. The picture is crystal clear to anyone not blinded by political correctness or some other form of stupidity.