To the dozen or so people that handed me “Logsdon for Mayor” literature and promised that Logsdon would reverse the recent tax increases and keep our community a great place to live, oh, what a wicked web we weave! We are not talking about subtle lies, more like an avalanche. The man has been in office less than 90 days and I will be paying 30 percent more in taxes and fees (that he approved) to the city government this year. Why can’t Logsdon be like U.S. Representative Lynn Westmoreland when he voted down a bloated Katrina package and just say no? We were all assured that Mayor Logsdon was not a developer’s puppet. Wrong again! He got the City Council to vote in favor of setting a historical precedent by extending our sewer service outside of the city limits for residential use. Mark your calendars to remind you of that vote. Entitle the entry “beginning of the end.” The statement in the newspaper said the property in the county did not increase in density because of the sewer extension. I’m an engineer and I know that the city has an engineer. With the mandatory stream buffers in the county and poor soils, there’s no way they could have placed 60 homes on that site using septic. I’m not even sure the perk rate for the soil was even close to adequate which is why they needed the sewer in the first place. Cal Beverly’s editorial was right: get ready to be slammed by houses in Fayette and Coweta fed by our own sewer system. We are now going to see a chain of higher density developments in the county. Guess who is going to pay all the damage from that development, more schools, more traffic, more crowding? Now Mayor Logsdon wants to put 1,100 houses on the west side of the city. That’s somewhere around 2,800 new residents on that one piece of underdeveloped land. The ride in the morning on Ga. Highway 74 is already bad enough. If the huge developments are constructed in Coweta because they have our sewer capacity, the traffic will be unbearable. Their increase in population could be around 15,000 people or more. At first, I was hopeful. Now, 90 days later, we see Logsdon was nothing but a pig in a poke. The days of controlled growth are gone and the joke is on us. The quiet family town is on the way out, replaced with sprawl.

Before we call him a liar, let’s assume that Mayor Logsdon is suffering from a multiple personality disorder. One week he’s extending the sewer into the county. The next week he tells the newspaper the city is not seeking sewer customers outside the city. The following week the newspaper reports that the mayor and city manager of Senoia have been meeting with Mayor Logsdon on extending the sewer system into Coweta County. Logsdon is creating a huge leadership void.

How much do you want to bet that Harold Logsdon is now doing a lot of financial planning for local land owners and real estate developers? Perhaps this is the return of the good old boy network and the joy of the developing mutually beneficial business relationships.

The lunacy with Harold Logsdon has got to stop. I don’t like his telling the senior citizens to back off. The mayor said he is scaling back our desperately needed Gathering Place expansion because he wants to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars. The very same buffoon who’s willing to waste millions of our tax dollars to pay back the development agency crooks (who assisted and funded his election campaign) is giving us seniors the ax to make it happen. What a disgrace. He is casting our pearls to the swine while he offers us stones instead of bread. We’re tired of the broken promises.

So Mayor Logsdon and the City Council has finally done the right thing and stopped the prayer from the opening of the meeting. It’s about time. First this was something Steve Brown instituted because ... well ... he’s Steve Brown and he’ll do anything to pander to anyone. But more importantly Mayor Logsdon is doing what is right because he is recognizing that he represents ALL the people, regardless of religious beliefs. You see, whether you want to admit it or not, Peachtree City is not made up of exclusively Christians. In fact even the Christians can’t decide who is really the “right kind” of Christian. Additionally the mayor and Council are keeping with the Constitution of the United States and are not “endorsing” a specific religious belief. And lastly, they may actually have recognized that I didn’t vote for any of them to represent me based on their “religious” belief. I don’t care about their religion, or even if they are religious. I care about how they legislate the city. If our council members need a little “reflection” prior to a meeting, then do it in private. Public display of religion is simply for show. So congratulations to Mayor Logsdon and the Council. They are bringing the representation of our citizens back to ALL our citizens. They are legislating from a position of knowledge, investigation, and rationality. Not from a position of pandering for votes like the previous council. Keep up the good work and thank you to the Council for recognizing your official position is to represent all of us regardless of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, or sex. Unlike the pandering buffoons you replaced.

Seems Greg Dunn is running Wilkerson to be his next swing vote on his commission. “Wilkerson I was a Republican before it was cool”: Is this the only thing he’s got? He must not know that the majority of us are done with Dunn. Wilkerson moved to Fayette County to get in local politics like Eldrin Bell did in Clayton County. Does Fayette County need a transplant with political intentions representing us? Fayette County needs a Republican without any connection to the commissions. I think Robert Horgan is the right man for the job.

I canceled my service with BellSouth after writing them a letter explaining that I would not deal with a company who had a member on their board that stole from their previous employer. BellSouth responded that they are not responsible for Mr. Mullin’s actions in his previous job. I also do not deal at Wal-Mart, because of Michele Burns. I am naive enough to think I can make a difference. Leo Mullin and his group have no scruples. Why would anyone want to deal with companies that employ them? There are enough retired and present Delta employees to make a difference.

I believe much of the Delta bashing is simply the result of the arrogance of a very small percentage of pilots and/or their second round “trophy “wives. I also believe there is a perception that the pilots have it made and are over-paid and under-worked. There is also the usual resentment the “have nots” will always foster towards the “haves.” And finally, I submit that we have quite a few former Eastern families that are feeling a great deal of satisfaction from Delta’s plight because of the behavior of the same small few mentioned above. I’ve been in PTC for over 26 years and I will confess I have encountered the pilots and wives I described in the first sentence. However, for every one of those I met I have met many, many great men and women that happened to be pilots and pilot’s wives. And yes, very seldom was their occupation the first thing out of their mouths. I strongly suggest that we all look at our own professions or occupations and ask ourselves do we have any coworkers or leadership that behaves like the 1 percent of the pilots we so resent? Let’s not be so smug as to think the Delta organization has a corner on the market when it comes to arrogance and elitism. In the past the pilot’s union asked for the pay and benefit increases and Delta gave it to them. Do you really think you would refuse those things if they were offered to you? It’s really as simple as that; they asked for the money and benefits and it was given. Now the reverse has happened and the pilots are below the mid-point of the pay range for their trade and have conceded many benefits. They have done what they had to do and accepted deep concessions to keep the company afloat. Would you do it or would you just walk away? Look, most of these guys love what they do and are willing to do it for a lot less. I’d much rather see someone in the driver’s seat that has a passion for their trade then someone that’s a time-clock puncher. The cold reality is the glory days of aviation are over, just as they are or soon will be for a number of industries, and as is usually the case the employees are the ones that suffer. Be careful what you say because your profession could be next, just as mine could. This sort of thing brings out the worst in many of us when it should bring out the best. These folks are our neighbors and fellow human beings. Let’s stop painting with so broad a brush and show a little compassion. Isn’t there an expression that’s goes something like, “There but for the grace of God go I?”

You Delta pilots are too much. Of course your salaries are less than AirTran: AirTran is making money. Just in case you’ve been snoozing in the cockpit, Delta is losing money. How do YOU spell B-A-N-K-R-U-P-T-C-Y? You say you’re educated and can seek employment elsewhere? By all means go ahead, but you should refrain from applying for positions in the field of economics.

I see where the Clayton County Sheriff, a Mr. Hill, I think, is now going to keep all money collected at the jail from machines and food service to be used as he sees fit. He is stopping sending it to the county for accounting functions. Sounds good to me. Maybe Fayette County’s Sheriff’s Department, I’m not sure who the actual sheriff is, or if he is alive, could learn more from Mr. Hill? Should be able to collect a bunch at the big jail, and maybe even get the franchises for all of Fayette County vending? Has the Sheriff’s Department leased a limo yet for senior officer transport? I hear they are getting quotes.

It is NOT good service when a citizen is told it will take 7 to 10 days to get a copy of a police report. In every other community, it’s 48 hours. The Free Speech contributor was accurate in saying the system doesn’t seem right when he had to pay $5 for a copy of the incident report. It has nothing to do with being cheap. It’s about local law enforcement not following the law. Georgia Code 50-18-17(c) states, “Where no fee is otherwise provided by law, the agency may charge and collect a uniform copying fee not to exceed .25 per page.” It’s a shame that the Peachtree City Police Department violates the Open Records Law in order to discourage citizens from the information that we are entitled to. If they truly want to foster confidence they will start abiding by the law and allow public access of their records, not at a highway robbery fee.

I suppose it is to be expected that nearly all of the letters to Free Speech are critical of something or other. After all, people are supposed to do their job without being praised all of the time. Be kind of silly to write in the paper every week that all of our officials did a wonderful job last week. The problem comes when many jobs these days aren’t very well defined. After all, we no longer can judge a person’s output by counting. There is nothing to count in most cases. Just opinion, and how little trouble one causes. If counting is done, such as arrests made, or customers satisfied, or taxes lowered, or budgets cut, we want to manipulate the figures in the paper to look at their very best, instead of telling the citizens where further improvement needs to be accomplished. We have reached the point, I’m afraid, where whatever happens to happen, has to be looked upon as adequate, at least. That is why there is so much criticism posted: frustration.

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