Knowing where roads were to be placed has been a bonanza for developers and politicians in Georgia ever since the Interstates started through here!

I know nothing about the Fayetteville by-pass but it shouldn't be hard to check the courthouse and compare the owners along the route to developers!

These kind of lands are bought up much earlier than the road is to be built. If they weren't the old owners would demand much more for the land than the developers pay early.

Sometimes the state has to "condemn" such land to get it when there is no agreement early!

You will have to make your own judgment just how it should be done!

Personally, I don't think those in a position to know the route should be able to buy it or inform anyone else to buy it.

Maybe an auction early?

I did not vote for the ESPLOST last year and neither did many of my colleagues. And I won't vote for the new proposed SPLOST, either. I agree with grassroots that the most likely to vote in favor are those government works, teachers, and parents using only their short-sighted self interests to guide them. Just when I think I might come out a little bit ahead financially, Fayette County comes up with another method by which to take my money. I have paid the consequences of living outside my means and learned valuable lessons from it. The problem is that those individuals (members of the school board, town council, etc.)spending tax dollars on my behalf will not pay any such consequences, so no lessons learned. As for building a Clayton State campus, I just cannot convince myself of its urgency (neither did Dr. Demmitt convince me in his article). I am certainly committed to education, but let's focus on K-12 at the moment. Our schools have suffered huge losses in terms of personnel and resources (not to mention morale); I'm thinking it would be useful to put the horse before the cart just this once. Vote NO to the SPLOST!

Dear teachers,

Please accept my apology for the inept leadership we have placed in a position to impact you in such a negative way.

I learned (or was reminded)today that you have already lost over 6% of your pay, have not had a raise in years, have been paying increased costs and percentages for your health insurance and will most probably face additional cuts later this school year on top of what you have already experienced. Expect ten percent this year.

I also learned that those in charge of your finances have been the 12th worst money managers in the state out of over 200 systems. You are the best and they are the worst. How ironic and how unfair.

You certainly do not deserve this treatment and it is easy to see why moral among teachers is the lowest it has been since we came to the area some 25 years ago. It is also the lowest in the state I would imagine and that is saying something. Even Meriwether county teachers are not taking the pay-cut you were handed by the school board and the superintendent and no, no furloughs either.

Please realize, as I do, that you are the most significant people in the lives of our children other than us, the parents. Despite this, we demand and demean you. We do not schedule appointments with you we simply march in - yet you have as much or more college and professional training than most lawyers, some of you have more education and training that doctors, accountants, dentists, and yet we expect you to be at our every beck and call. We stood idly by as you were pushed beyond your limits. What is worse is that we watched you pay the burden of a bloated aristocracy of bureaucratic incompetents who passed the buck and the burden down to you while demanding you do more with less every year.

I have seen the massive number of applicants coming out of Fayette county and sympathize with you. The end of this glorious system is near. Over-hiring and over-reaching by R. Ellis, human resources, has caused you to have more teachers and fewer students while empty buildings sit idly, and your pay and benefits are slashed.

Yet, you have done more with less. Despite poorly drawn boundaries, and wasted money in construction, you have made the scheme work and work well. Your credentials are impeccable and your accomplishments are laudable. Your expertise is unsurpassed.

Yet, as if to add insult to injury, you have a barely coherent 'Human Resources Director' who has hoodwinked your school board. You have tolerated this Atlanta import (that has a reputation of harassing your employees and over spending, over reaching, and micromanaging), a Comptroller who is a joke among her peers that cannot give information in a way that allows your dolt laden school board to make decisions, a public relations office in complete disarray with no affect (or effect) whatsoever, and a school board that cannot agree on anything or plan effectively but can certainly sell land belonging to their relatives at a ridiculous cost, in a lousy location and with 100 acres left over to drag along while you cut the pay of those who actually ARE competent - you teachers.

So, rather than to ramble along endlessly about the self appointed NAACP officer and human resources diva and general racial agitator who has already been through at least 5 secretaries in the last three years, and without reflecting upon the wasted money hiring consultants or housing 65 students in a school built for 650, and without bringing to your attention the fact that the county support staff actually uses three buildings (two schools and the Stonewall Ave. building) I will simply say "I am truly sorry".

I for one appreciate the hard work and long hours you put in. I see building administrators and coaches/teachers every night at events but I have yet to see a board member of a central office person attend any of them (unless DeCotis' kids are involved). I appreciate that I was given an opportunity to see and enjoy this area before the current crop of Atlanta Public School rejects took over human resources. I appreciate that I was here before all of Clayton County schools (what a model of achievement they are) sent the transportation director and CW Campbell here without being experienced or qualified.

In short, I LOVE how the building level personnel are always involved and engaged and I cannot believe we as a community have stood by while you were humiliated, dismantled, harassed and mistreated by the incompetent leadership of a dysfunctional school board and a county office full of lazy morons making too much money, working too few hours, and running our school system in the ground.

People of Fayette, your home values depend on those teachers. Treat them well and they will make your community the best it can be.

Teachers, the board is punishing you for their sins.

Unless and until the community feels the impact of the board's and county office's failed leadership and mis-management (i.e., has to find a sitter on your furlough days, has canceled school programs, etc.) you will continue to be strapped with trying to do more with less while your moral is stomped on by the boots of the ungrateful management of the county office and board of education. And no one will notice except those of us who see our children's dreams smashed by the failed leadership of a bloated bureaucracy and wave goodbye as our children and grandchildren move away to better things.... things that were once right here. Yes, like my daughter - a teacher who sold her home and will be moving next year because, as she put it, "I have given them all I can and I have nothing left to give".

Folks, I will miss my daughter and grandson. You will miss your property values.

We will all miss the wonderful teachers that we watched being humiliated, embarrassed, used and mis-used by an overpaid and ungrateful team of incompetent self described 'leaders'.

These teachers have indeed given their all while we cut their pay on short and long notice at a time when taxes climbed, the cost of living rose, and the challenges of meeting with success were constantly increased. Again, teachers, I truly apologize.

Jarrod Martinez Jr

Mr. Martinez, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU...for the time and thought you put into your message. Your words have built UP my morale so much more than any of the words of my "superiors" in the school system. I sincerely appreciate what you have expressed, and I am sure many, many of my colleagues who read your message feel the same. I wish the administrators in our schools would take the same approach and dish out a little SINCERE praise...it doesn't cost much and it goes a very long way. Again, many thanks!

that just got taken advantage of like the taxpayers. They wanted to believe the ESPLOST was going to save their salery, I'm sure as they were told on these little 'email trees' then after the elections were over the 'dodo' hit the wall.

The rest of us felt we knew what was going to happen to them, but my God! It was sooo soon after the elections...it was so COLD!!!!

Dead on the money!!!!!!

Like saying that the federal IRS is expiring but we are going to extend it....so, no new tax!

Sure doesn't get rid of a tax does it?

As to Clayton University MAYBE using some thing we build...maybe when they sign saying they will we could consider it!
This is a trick just to get the SPLOST!