I just wanted to thank the town of Tyrone for the new 4-way intersection at Arrowwood and Palmetto Road. It’s so nice to sit in the traffic that now backs up half way to Palmetto. I guess you wanted a traffic problem similar to that of Peachtree City. Well, you got it. As a gesture of our appreciation I think it would be nice if we all start blowing our horn once we finally get through the new intersection and pass by Mayor Lee’s house during the morning rush hour. For those of you who don’t know it’s the little house just past the intersection with the tacky purple with red hat mailbox. Oh, what the heck, it does not matter what time, just blow to say thank you.

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Might as well forget about not having to pay for the wasted million and a half on the Tennis Center. The PTC voters gave a mandate to the currently elected group who will go ahead and pay it. It is just a matter of finding a way (like long-term payments guaranteed by the taxpayers) to do it. There are too many people in town connected either to the Peachtree National Bank (now a chain) and to the tennis center and to the old tennis pros. Don’t know how much interest the bank already collected.

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I have been a season ticket holder at the amphitheater for a long time and ever since someone had the bright idea to sell tickets on Ticketmaster the crowd has changed. The couple a few seats in front of us should have been at Motel 6. Nothing like good family fun entertainment.

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The big argument about the sheriff’s department is a last gasp by a dying organization. When a county starts to become urbanized, as Fayette gradually is, then there is no need for anything to be done by the sheriff but to serve warrants and take care of the jail and courthouse. No need to cover Nottingham Woods. The city police will cover nearly everything else. It is silly to have little spots here and there in the county that are not annexed by cities. My goodness, we have federal officers (of a dozen types), state police, Georgia police, ATF police, county police, and I’m sure some I didn’t think of for now. They spend more time now “coordinating” than anything else. Also, we now have Homeland Security, and in many places, a director of public safety. Not to mention scores of PI and Internet officers. The National Guard is also available, and the U.S. Army when needed. The jail is full because we sentence people we are afraid of to 20-25 years (the poor and unfortunate) and send our white collars to the tennis clubs. If all of these people were located to patrol directly in the ghettoes where the bad crime comes from (as they do in England) we would prevent most of it. Hard to do when nobody wants to walk or ride a bike or patrol a golf cart path at night.

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I’m very sorry for the inconvenience that the residents of Planterra are going through. It is a problem with the extra traffic, I know, but you have to understand that these are public roads. Not private roads. These roads are paved and repaired with tax dollars that come from gas sales in the state of Georgia. As long as these roads are public, the only way that you can limit traffic is to limit the gross weight of the vehicle. So unless you are willing to pony up the funds that it requires to maintain the roads, you will have to share with the rest of us taxpaying citizens.

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I agree that we in Planterra have no right to privatize public roads, but after living here for five years and seeing nothing done about the abominable 54-74 intersection or to properly time the traffic lights (ditto on the four on 54 East) and the only response from the council and police being to hand out more tickets, maybe some creative ideas will shake a few trees. If all these outlanders really are speeding through residential areas you’d think the police could generate a bunch of revenue by setting up frequent speed traps, but I guess that would cut into their constant quest for the big money makers, DUI and the occasional pot user.

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Who in the world do the people of Planterra Ridge think they are? Living in that neighborhood does not does not make them any better than anyone else, regardless of what they might try to convince themselves and others to believe. If those residents are serious about not having “outsiders” drive on their streets, then they should move their neighborhood out in the middle of nowhere instead of in a very busy area of a popular city. Seriously, people, get over yourselves.

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Hey, Delta pilots, thanks for taking that pay cut so the company can spend $1,000 per employee for new uniforms. I find it absurd that a struggling, bankrupt airline can ask employees to take pay cuts and say that is the only thing that would keep the airline in business, and then turn around and order new uniforms to boost employee moral. This just shows how out of touch Delta execs are.

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Did you see the great job that pilot did landing that plane that lost its wheels on takeoff? Was that a highly skilled, paid higher than the industry, we’re better than any of the others Delta pilot? Oh, I didn’t think so.

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A poster recently asked about what has happened with the sign ordinance challenge in Fayette County. The matter was mentioned in connection with Commission candidate Eric Maxwell’s successful challenge to the sign ordinance. I had to go back through the Fayette Citizen archives and look for past stories to piece the whole thing together. It is fascinating. Signs pop up all over. They may be Realtors, yard signs, furniture sales, etc. During campaigns they pop up all over. Ironically, I can distinctly remember Commission Chairman Greg Dunn regularly placing tons of signs in the right-of-way, which is illegal. Sidekick Peter Pfeifer did the same. Well, after becoming incumbents they apparently had a change of heart. The ordinance was made more restrictive. Two of the first challengers were Bubba Coffey and judge candidate/prosecutor Steve Harris. Dunn’s marshals cited Coffey. Harris stated publicly that he felt certain the law was improper and he said he would not prosecute. Harris was then attacked by a number of people including Dunn and the incumbent judges. Harris ran against one of the incumbents. The local judges ruled against Harris and ruled against Coffey. After the election, Coffey won some type of appeal. But then Eric Maxwell sued in the federal court and won. The federal judge agreed with Harris, Coffey and Maxwell. Fascinating story. Not being a lawyer, I hope I did not oversimplify. But let me say this: if my version is correct I think that Maxwell deserves applause and Harris deserves an apology.

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Mega kudos to whoever is responsible for the “Share the Road” signs. It’s high time all those Fayette County bicyclers realize that they’re not the only ones on the roads. What a bunch of road hogs. Cyclists need to remember that there are also cars, vans, trucks, school buses, motorcycles, and pedestrians on the road. C’mon, you bipedal self-propellers. Give the rest of us some room. Share the road.

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Even though 75 percent of them probably can not read this, I would like to say a big “Thank You” to our Hispanic protesters on Monday, May 1. We saw so many different news stories concerning the protest and the walk-outs of work and the staying out of school and as encouraging as that was for me, the greatest encouragement was the amount of gasoline that was saved due to the protest, the walk-outs and the staying home. Literally tons upon tons of fuel were saved by this endeavor. So, I’d like to encourage our Hispanic community to protest and walk out at least once a month every month or go back to Mexico so that us true Americans can reap the harvest next time we have to fill up at the fuel pumps.

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I’m a 9-year-old girl and I’m writing this letter because I don’t think kids should be eating honeysuckle. I think this because I’ve gotten sick from eating them. I know you may think it’s weird for kids to eat them, but they do. Another reason is that the town sprays chemicals on the plants and you could get poisoned. I’m asking you to tell your children to stop eating them.

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Why is it that I never see but extremely few immigrants (legal) serving our county as politicians? I’m talking about the East Indian people, the Vietnamese people, the Chinese people, the Filipino people, the Iraqi people, the Afghans, all of the Central and South American people, the American Indian, the Mexicans, and the many African peoples. Is it because they don’t want to serve (or run), or is it something else?