The parks are paid for by the residents here. I don't begrudge anyone use of the parks, but when they leave the park at Battery Way, or others, the least they could do is throw their trash in the garbage. I don't go to their City parks where it says use for City residents only and leave trash everywhere.

I understand your beef about the trash. That's incredibly annoying and worthy of concern. I'll give you that.

But my question is how reasonable is it to assume that only non-county residents are leaving the trash? I find it hard to believe that only they are guilty of this. I have a strong suspicion that a number of PTC locals are also guilty.

leaving empty worm buckets etc. all the time at Battery Way (always the same car w/Fulton County tags). I also see Citizens picking up trash too. I do it, it makes the area look better.

The difference between the Silver Comet Trail and the PTC cart paths is who paid for them and who maintains them. Federal, state and local money built the Silver Comet Trail and funds from all of those are in place or earmarked for upkeep. The cart paths were built by private developers and donated to the city. Actually, if you want to honest about it, you and I paid for the paths since they were built into our house price. And it is you and I who maintain those paths with our PTC tax dollars. No federal or state money there to pick up trash, repair potholes, police protection, etc.

Users from outside the county should pay somehow, maybe user fees. An annual non-resident use permit could work - $50? What's wrong with that?

Well, I'd be interested in knowing how such a user fee would be enforced. Are you willing to pay the additional funds to have someone full time patroling the paths to kick out the non-fee paying folks? That would get mighty interesting the first time this "fee enforcer" has to tell a family of four to get off the paths. Crying kids and angry parents wouldn't exactly broadcast a positive public image of PTC on the evening news.

Also, what about out-of-towners visiting who are considering moving to PTC who are checking out the area that get told, "Take off, you aren't a resident."? That's not going to induce them to want to move there.

I don't live in Fayette County any more, although I grew up there and visit family who still live there quite often. I don't use the cart paths, either, to answer that question ahead of time.

The way government works, it would cost $150 to collect one $50 user fee. Even then, these aliens would still be using our paths and leaving litter and dog poop behind. Much better idea is to implement a serious littering fine - like $500 and get senior citizens with camera phones patrolling the paths. 1 call to police about a littering case will get a swarm of officers and a DFACS worker to take care of the kids while the parents are hauled off to jail. That's a much better image for our city.

I don't pretend to think that only out of town visitors leave trash in our parks. That simply isn't the case, and yes; better enforcement of the litter would be great. With only one or two officers patrolling the trails for an hour or two a day, not much will result. Don't know how well the courts will back senior citizens taking pictures, but if it works; I'm all for it. In fact, if they can present photographic evidence, I feel the person with the evidence should get most if not all of the reward. That would be incentive for catching people littering.

As for fees, an earlier post referred to Stone Mountain and White Water. Stone Mountain is owned by the State and operated by a private company on behalf of the State. Yes, I have to pay a fee to use Stone Mountain. In fact, I have to pay a fee to use most any State Park now. I pay state taxes, but yet I am still expected to pay a fee to use the recreational facilities.

Most of the National Parks have a fee for usage. Yes again, we all pay federal taxes, unless you're former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell that is; but to use the recreation facilities we still have to pay a fee.

White Water as the other blogger referred to is privately owned and operated for a profit. Yes again, you have to pay a fee to use. The reference to the Comet Trail is an interesting one. It is operated by a non-profit organization and they ask for contributions. Using for free without making a contribution is not illegal, but morally questionable.

So, if there were a way to charge a fee to non-resident or their guests, I would have no problem with that; but we all know it isn't practical.

Simply setting a policy that states the Peachtree City recreational facilities are for Peachtree City residents and their guests won't stop others from using the facilities, but if they are caught violating other laws, such as littering; then an additional charge could be brought against them. And before you go there, no I am not advocating ID checks on the paths or parks. You would only get your ID checked if your doing something wrong.

Another blog referred to the SPLOST and LOST funds. Previous Mayor Brown's stance against this last SPLOST vote was due to what was perceived as an unbalanced dispursement of funds. In fact, the funds are not distributed proportionally, so for that blogger to imply that county funds solely paid for the $6,000,000.00 in cart path improvements is wrong. All that happened was money that Peachtree City could have used for other roads was earmarked instead to maintain the path system.

Due to a change in state laws future SPLOST fund distributions will be weighted proportional to the tax generated. In that case, Peachtree City will have far more funds available to it for this project or many others.

Now I have been called vile names by another blogger here for my position on this issue. You possibly may do the same, but we are all entitled to our opinions, but basically; if the State and Federal governments can charge fees for recreation, I don't see why Peachtree City limiting it's facilities to residents and their guests can be so wrong.

Dana Kinser

Dana, I appreciate your point of view and you (as with anyone) are entitled to it. If I don't happen to agree with you 100 percent, I'm not about to call you a name. That's not conducive to mature discourse and it accomplishes nothing.

"So, if there were a way to charge a fee to non-resident or their guests, I would have no problem with that; but we all know it isn't practical."

You're right. It just isn't practical and it sends a message that PTC doesn't want visitors. And I don't think anybody wants the city to have that kind of image.

Now the idea of charging a steep fine for littering (for PTC residents and visitors) is something I can stand behind. If enforced properly, it could send the message that trashing the trails/cart paths is not going to be tolerated. The problem is, few people are going to litter with a security officer standing feet away. But perhaps "sweeps" on the weekends when the most people are out could accomplish something.

As Barney Fife used to say: "you are a nut." If you were driving through Griffin, lets say, and saw a nice little park, should it be illegal for you to park and look it over---even sit down and have lunch if you wish. I still think some people are not wanting certain kinds of people here, not just any people. How do you tell the difference? Its nuts! Drop it.

Little rodent, aren't you overlooking the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) and the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that the Fayette County people voted for with the idea that "visitors will pay our tax"? Well, they are. Plus PTC has been getting all kinds of grants (including for the police) from the federal government, and its police gives tickets to out-of-towners who then generously provide fine revenues to the city. Please don't be so ungrateful!