A retired engineer and current member of the Peachtree City Recreation Commission is the latest resident to announce candidacy for a seat on the City Council.

Eric Imker, 53, has declared his bid to run for the Post 1 seat that will be vacated by Don Haddix, who has already announced his plans to run for Mayor. The winner of the Post 1 seat will fill the remaining two years on Haddix’s term in office.

Imker said he decided to run for office based on a number of decisions made by the majority of the City Council in the past several years. His interest was provoked initially when it took a citizen uprising to convince the council to ditch the TDK Boulevard road extension project in June 2007.

“Basically council had to be prodded to make a decision not to expand,” Imker said of the project that would have linked the city and Coweta County via a new bridge over Line Creek. The project became controversial after Coweta County announced it had approved 3,000 homes near the bridge that would have likely added significant traffic to Ga. Highway 74 at TDK Boulevard and Crosstown Drive.

Since then, Imker said he particularly disagrees with the council agreeing to sell most of a city road to accommodate a shopping center developer ... and the subsequent traffic light that was approved by the City Council for said shopping center. That light will only make traffic worse, Imker said.

Imker said the stretch of retail on Ga. Highway 54 West has come to look like Tara Boulevard in Clayton County, which he contends “is not what the founding fathers of the city had in mind.”

Imker admits that some of the decisions made by council recently have gotten under his skin.

“Sometimes it just makes me really boil when I see things happening,” Imker said.
Imker also cited the incomplete golf cart path bridge on Ga. Highway 54 West over the CSX railroad tracks as another issue that has bothered him.

Though Imker said he isn’t sure how he would have voted on two annexations approved by council last year, Imker said he can see approving such annexations when there is a benefit to the city. Imker said he didn’t think those two annexations had such a benefit, and he thinks the city didn’t need to approve the higher density in exchange for the MacDuff Parkway extension, which he contends would have been done in the future anyway.

Likewise, Imker said he is skeptical about the theory of annexing property because the city might not like how it is developed by another government.

“That doesn’t wash with me,” Imker said.
Imker, who has lived here for nearly six years and retired after a few short years at Panasonic, said he plans to stay in Peachtree City the rest of his life.
Imker said he has only spoken to City Councilman Don Haddix once, though they seem to have a similar vision about how the city should be run.

As far as the city’s budget deficit and financial management is concerned, Imker noted his experience managing a billion-dollar project: a satellite that was put into orbit by a Space Shuttle as part of the U.S. missile defense program then known as “Star Wars.”

Imker, who lives in the Ashford Park subdivision, said he is looking forward to hearing from other candidates’ viewpoints. He strongly feels the voting block of Mayor Harold Logsdon and councilman Steve Boone and Cyndi Plunkett needs to be broken up; all three are up for re-election though none has yet announced if they will seek office again.

“The mayor and the other two council members who vote with him on nearly every issue have to go,” Imker said in a press release announcing his candidacy.

Imker notes that he has worked with Plunkett on recreation matters as she is the council liaison with the recreation commission. He said his bid for office is “nothing against her,” but he feels strongly the city needs to change its direction.

In his press release Imker criticizes the business relationship between Mayor Harold Logsdon and City Manager Bernie McMullen, who have entered a partnership to purchase homes, renovate them and then sell them.

“This is no way to show the public that you are on the up and up,” Imker said. “Mere appearance of impropriety should be considered off the table.”