Officials defend obvious bad choices

Edward R. Murrow, journalistic hero, a man willing to take on the biggest names in government, defending the American public from dishonest dealers, said, “The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.”

The wake-up cries of a few fell upon deaf ears when it came to the Fayette County Board of Education (FCBOE). Well, the obscure is now crystal clear.

Now FCBOE Members Janet Smola and Terri Smith are trying to convince everyone they were operating in “good faith” when they crashed the system. According to Ms. Smola, the state forced the FCBOE to make bad decisions. She claims there was no other choice but to build schools we could not fill.

Heaven forbid the FCBOE rebate our taxes instead of squandering tens of millions of dollars on empty new schools. The thought of giving us our money back was never an option for members Smola, Smith and Lee Wright. After all, the members had to take a sledgehammer to the truth for us to vote in favor of the 2004 bonds in the first place.

Neal Sullivan and his pro-ESPLOST group, Fayette Citizens for Children, kept telling us the FCBOE’s management of the system was excellent, convincing a little over 50 percent of the voters to approve even more taxes, marching the gullible citizens into an ambush. Where is the Fayette Citizens for Children now?

The Fayette County Board of Commissioners is taking us down a similar road, with no brakes and no seatbelts. The commissioners are seeking “input” on the “new” transportation plan, forgetting to mention what happened to the current, incomplete plan.

The truth is the current transportation plan is a sham based upon a badly flawed model. But the commissioners want to finish the deceitful West Fayetteville Bypass anyway.

Now that the numbers do not add up anymore and the fake can be exposed, where are all of the big-name supporters of the transportation SPLOST?

Chairman Jack Smith backed away from the TDK Extension project when it was exposed as a fraud, so will he do the same with the bypass hoax? We should not hold our breath waiting for Chairman Smith to do the right thing.

At the very least, the commissioners should rename the bypass the “Developer Expressway” to show who really benefits from the project. (Voice your opposition of the West Fayetteville Bypass to administration@fayettecountyga.gov.)

The Peachtree City Planning Commission workshop meeting for the proposed Callula Hill residential development at the end of the Falcon Field runway and in the midst of the industrial area was interesting. The developer is Pathway Communities, Mayor Logsdon’s largest campaign contributor.

Pathway Communities is working feverishly, even in the midst of an abysmal housing market, to get this site rezoned to residential while Mayor Logsdon is still in office. They are aware the proposal may never be approved in 2010 under a new administration.

At the workshop, I got the feeling the city’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan does not matter anymore. In fact, some of the planning commissioners did not even have a copy of the city’s land use plan until recently. Moreover, Planning Commission Chairman Patrick Staples appeared to be actively selling the Callula Hill project.

What is obviously clear, but is taking the public a long time to figure out, is Mr. Staples has no reverence for the city’s land use plan. In fact, he never references the city’s land plans and elects to tell the audience what he prefers instead. I dare say none of us moved to Peachtree City based on Mr. Staples’ personal preferences.

In the future, we will pay one heck of a financial price for not protecting our local airport from developments like Callula Hill. A consistent, commonsense approach based upon the rational planning methodology within our Comprehensive Land Use Plan is totally absent from this specific proposal. (Voice your opposition to planningcommission@peachtree-city.org.)

Many of us are waiting to hear what the candidates for the council posts of Peachtree City have to say about Callula Hill and the belief of following the city’s land use plans and ordinances.

[Steve Brown is the former mayor of Peachtree City. He can be reached at stevebrownptc@ureach.com.]

WFB

Submitted by grassroots on Sun, 03/08/2009 - 3:20pm.

Our West Fayetteville Bypass Coalition have made progress in writing letters, environmental studies, editorials and conducting monthly meetings. For anyone interested we will be having our 4th monthly meeting at the Hope Center on New Hope and Hwy 92 , Tuesday, March 10 at 7pm. Thanks Steve for keeping this WFB sham in the public eye.

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Protest

Submitted by MYTMITE on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 11:31am.

I sent mine also, but will it make a difference? Certain officials in Peachtree City do what their developer buddies want and damn the residents and their protests.

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I sent mine

Submitted by Doug on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 11:16pm.

Sent my protest e-mail

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