In times like these, where everyone is having a hard time financially, people losing their jobs, homes, etc., it should be against the law for a utility company to turn off someone’s gas until every possible route has been taken to make some sort of payment. Did you know that even though you can get natural gas through Coweta-Fayette EMC, they’re only the “billing” department of Atlanta Gas Light? Did you know that Atlanta Gas Light does not knock on doors to see if you were by chance able to get the money to pay the bill before they turn your gas off? Did you know that even when you make payment to get it turned back on that the Public Service Commission allows the utility companies five days to turn your gas back on? It doesn’t matter that you have infants, school-age children, if it’s 30 degrees outside or not. It’s a shame and disgrace for the PSC to allow that to happen when people can’t even take showers, have heat or cook without their gas. It’s almost like they’re punishing you for not being able to keep current on your bill, even though you’ve lost your job. Shame on you, Atlanta Gas Light. Shame on you, EMC, for allowing your distributors to do that. Shame on you, PSC, for giving the utility companies the right to hold your money and not turn your gas back on for five days.

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Did anyone else notice what cable TV did this week? After being a customer of Comcast for over 20 years, I have seen prices more than double while service levels have sharply dropped. On Feb. 13, Comcast completely eliminated their (limited) HD channel lineup for those who have a newer TV that has the HD receiver built in. I guess they now want you to pay the additional fee to rent their HD receiver box on a monthly basis, on top of their high fees for basic service. Let’s see: that’s over $80 a month for basic service. When I called the Comcast customer service number, I was connected to someone from India who, when I asked for someone I could understand, they disconnected me. Hello, satellite TV, and goodbye, Comcast, and good riddance. I hope many others follow in my footsteps.

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It’s interesting looking at the stimulus projects by state. It is curious that nothing from PTC is listed for Georgia. I might be mistaken, but I thought there were some shovel-ready projects here, but didn’t have funding. Here was a chance to get some, but either the city/county or whoever didn’t have their stuff together or I guess too proud to get. This a current list of projects: www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state.

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I encourage all Fayette County residents to go to www.open.ga.gov/index.html. You will see that our illustrious superintendent who has asked teachers to take pay cuts made $190,000 in 2007 and $214,000 in 2008. Quite a hefty pay raise, don’t you think? And why do we have five interpreters making $150,000? If kids don’t speak English, what are they doing in our schools? If it is necessary, then one floater could do the job. There, between DeCotis and the four interpreters, I just saved the county $624,000 a year.

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It warms my heart that Dr. John DeCotis, superintendent of Fayette County Schools, receives pay comparable to nearby systems. His employees do NOT. They/we all just got a big, fat pay cut. So, Mr. Nelms’s article justifying the doc’s salary did not win favor with those at the mercy of the superintendent and his board. Data can be made to tell nearly any story one wishes, as is evidenced in Nelms’s article. As one writer has expressed, a vehicle allowance and health and retirement benefits ARE compensation and are rightly included as an individual’s pay. Someone please put my mind at ease. Are Dr. DeCotis and the board of education members taking a 4.5 percent pay cut, also? A memo sent from the super’s office listed the unfortunates who would be receiving the pay cut, including deputy superintendents, but conspicuously missing were those individuals who voted in the pay cuts for the rest of the school staff. I appreciate any clarifying information.

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Watch out, Fayette Board of Education; I hear a petition may be going around soon to get rid of all of you. You have your big salaries, but expect cuts from others, you build a school we don’t need and talk about closing the best elementary school in the county, you have excess employees (like three VPs and an interpreter at Flat Rock) yet don’t have enough employees to check all the affidavits for the illegal students. Your mismanagement has run this great county into the ground. Each and every one of you should be ashamed.

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There will be a state authority rally at the state Capitol on Saturday from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. to support Bobby Franklin’s HR 470 (supporting the state’s authority over Washington, D.C). Learn more at http://dontgo.ning.com/events.

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Loosening of the sign ordinances in this city is an idea obviously conceived after an all-night binge at Y-Knot. What none of them get is that we who live here think of them as a public joke, the embarrassed to be in public with and humiliated by their actions kind of joke. What they don’t get is that fact. Leave our city alone for the rest of your term and then quietly slide back into the holes you came out of. Your ideas are befitting that of people who have limited capacities. Truly, and sadly.

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Thank you to the Peachtree City policeman who recently saved the life of a very frisky, energetic brown puppy that was running into the road on North Peachtree Parkway at Lake Kedron. The officer stopped his car and very patiently took the time to coax the puppy to the side of the road away from busy morning traffic.

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A cart path runs through it: Why do certain associations feel the need to blame their neighbors for all problems that occur on their cart path and want them to be financially responsible for all issues occurring on the path? Many of our neighbors use the path systems in the town, which is why our town is so great, not just the adjacent neighborhoods. Making one neighborhood responsible is not quite fair. In this time of stress and strain, it seems that we should all be a little bit more neighborly and try to help one and another and not try to lay blame where it may or may not exist.

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What are all those new yellow numbered disks glued to the cart paths in Peachtree City? How much did that cost and what was the point? And, explain to me why the DOT has to place a row of five or six No Parking signs, spaced 20 feet apart, along the side of a turn lane or merging lane? Who would park there and who’s relative is selling the DOT all those unnecessary signs?

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Regarding the PTC Tennis Center debate, what people need to understand is that we brought a first-class Tennis Center to this community some 14 years ago with a first-class head pro and a first-class staff. Under Virgil Christian and Sean Ferrera, we had USTA tournaments, some 30 Alta teams, NCAA tourneys and even pro tournaments at the tennis center. It is also important for people to understand that Virgil had national connections in the industry and understood the tennis business, not just the art of playing the game. This is why he now holds the number 2 position in the USTA nationally. Under Virgil’s reign, the tennis center won two men’s city championship titles at AA2, which is the second highest of 27 levels of Alta. This feat has not been matched in the past decade. The tennis center as well as amphitheater have been posting record losses for years now. I do think the city made a very good choice in hiring Nancy Price to rescue The Fred. The city needs to sell these properties to proven private operators who specialize in these fields. This is the only way you will ever stop the bleeding and subsidies associated with these two facilities. Would you hand over the operations of the local Longhorn Steakhouse to the city? Same principle applies here.

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Rumor has it that the owner of area World Gyms, Dar Thompson, has managed to create a new business model for himself. Get public-owned facilities and land to expand your business interests. Why invest your own money in land and buildings when the Peachtree City Council can’t do enough for you. Rumor has it that it is an accomplished fact that the PTC Council is turning over the running of the Kedron Center to Dar. (Funny how the city can’t run the facility cost-effectively but Dar will be able to add to his bank account with the contract.) The fly on the wall has reported that Dar and his contractors were at Kedron planning its revisions — a new ice rink? (Remember last November, taxpayers nixed his first effort at financing his dreams.) How about a new BMX track? Wonderful, but how much will this end up costing the citizens of PTC and potential users? Remember, right now 90 percent of the cost for running the facility is taxpayer paid, not user paid. Too bad November is so far off. The currently city council is moving so fast in destroying what took 50 years to build.

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Do you want a free, fun activity for your family? Check out your clover batches in your yard. Either my boys are extremely lucky or Peachtree City has four-leaf clovers everywhere! We have lived in two locations in Peachtree City over the last 12 years and without fail, my two boys will find multiple 4-leaf clovers in our yard every spring. This past weekend they found over 40 in one small area of our backyard. I went outside right before writing this and I found three in less than a minute. What a great thing to try for St. Patrick’s Day.

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Now that Ga. Highway 74 was widened from Ga. Highway 54 south to Crosstown Road, why is the speed limit still at 45 mph? Is there some hidden regulation if sidewalks are present, the limit is max at 45?

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I just want to scream when the people in Peachtree City government we trusted to protect us do the exact opposite. The police are forcing people out of intersections, and the mayor and his bunch are making it worse with another traffic light on the road. And what’s going on with putting houses near the end of the runway at the airport? I would hope the people who decide such things for us are not dumb enough to approve something like that. Come on, people, do the right thing. Stop trashing Peachtree City.

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Just a reminder to all the Peachtree City citizens that are screaming about budget cuts: every time you cross into Coweta County to shop, you are taking away tax dollars to help us here in Fayette County.

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Okay, people, one more time, if you are turning right onto Redwine Road from Ga. Highway 74, there is a yield sign there indicating you need to yield to those turning left. There is also a yield sign for those of you turning right into Peeples Elementary from Redwine Road, once again for you to yield to those turning left. Are these some sort of magical yield signs that only I can see and are invisible to the ordinary mortal eye? The next time one of you almost hits my car and then has the nerve to lay on your horn and start yelling at me, I am going to get out of my car, calmly pull the yield sign out of the ground and hit you over the head with it. Get off your cell phones and start paying attention.

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To the person who dumped motor oil in and around the storm drain behind the Pavilion Belk, how much needed rainwater do you think you will pollute during the next downpour? Never mind, thinking is obviously beyond your ability.

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I hope you Tyrone citizens are paying attention to your local Town Council. If you follow what goes on, you will notice that Gloria Furr and Tracy Young always vote for what is best for Tyrone and its citizens. Keep your eyes on the other two, and the mayor.

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When did Tyrone become Riverdale West? I have never seen as many tacky signs on Ga. Highway 74. No other city in Fayette County looks so bad. What happened?

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Though your fears of a sixth runway could not possibly materialize for another 20 years, are you able to understand that this also translates into additional jobs for our residents? Growth, anywhere in our country, translates to downtowns getting bigger, roads becoming highways, airports turning into international gateways, and one day waking up to find new houses and neighbors popping up all around your “peaceful and secluded five-acre” paradise. As much as I sympathize with your wish to live in a quiet, peaceful setting, I know that that we can’t stop the world to protect this. In fact, the only option any of us really have is to pack up, head to Wyoming or Montana, and buy a big enough parcel of land to insure that no structure, nor airport, can be built within 100 miles of our paradise.

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To the person upset about the “sidewalks to nowhere” and “who will use them?” on Jeff Davis, may I remind you of a quote from a not-too-bad movie: “Build it and they will come.”

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To the person questioning the need of sidewalks along southbound Ga. Highway 92: Even though the sidewalk/road work is ongoing and the weather has been inclement, I and others have already used the sidewalks. Woodgate (one of several subdivisions in the area) residents have long walked beside Hwy. 92 in the “brush” for extended walking exercise. Your not seeing the sidewalks being used doesn’t mean they are not or will not be used. I for one applaud the county for encouraging people to walk safely by providing sidewalks. Other than the initial expense, how much maintenance does a sidewalk require?

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There’s a lot to do in the garden as spring rapidly approaches. Now is the time to set out cabbage and broccoli transplants. Although we will probably have another freeze or two, both cabbage and broccoli will tolerate a light freeze. If you planted cover crops in your garden last fall, now is the time to mow them off and turn them under. Your cover crops need to be tilled in at least three weeks prior to planting seeds. As you turn the legume cover crops under, look at the root system and you’ll see small white nodules of nitrogen those crops captured for you. That’s less nitrogen fertilizer you’ll need to purchase and add to the garden, thanks to Mother Nature.

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Your columnist Claude Paquin and state Rep. Matt Ramsey (both lawyers) this week have proposed more laws making our broken legal system worse. More laws are not needed. Mr. Paquin, who implies that police perjure themselves and that citizen defendants should be given a legal leg up in court, wants to make a complicated change to traffic court cases. How about this: just rely on perjury. If a cop lies, he goes to jail. Lawyer Paquin, I will wager, had an unfortunate traffic court experience (for which he accepted no blame) and wants to create more law. Please, just say no to more laws. The Internal Revenue, it was recently observed, consists of 17,000 pages. The Code of Federal Regulations consists of 75,000 pages. Average Americans waste 5 billion hours doing taxes, estimated to be a net loss to the economy of $200 billion. Businesses, in keeping up with the federal regulatory morass, waste another $500 billion on (you guessed it) lawyers to translate the Congressional gibberish. The answer here is not more laws. It is simple accountability. If a cop is corrupt, send him or her to prison. A single anecdote by Mr. Paquin turns into a justification for making the system even more complicated and making the public even more hopelessly dependent on lawyers. Another anecdotal knee-jerk legal change is proposed by Rep. Matt Ramsey on teen use of cell phones and texting while driving. Rep. Ramsey wants to create a new law which singles out young drivers but does not look at the big picture. Why? If someone is driving distracted, regardless of the cause or the driver’s age, there is an infraction and it should be punished. Why is the teen so horrible and yet if I choose to eat my BK double-loaded sandwich while driving, I’m OK? Oh, no, here comes the law on driving while feeding face. Yup, I need a lawyer. Rep. Ramsey’s rush to the legislative hopper with precious few legislative days left to garner is another good example of poor legislation. A simple search of the Internet (perhaps beyond the “research” of Rep. Ramsey) reveals that while many states are blindly jumping to pass laws aimlessly, some states have chosen to take a rational, thoughtful approach. Look at drivinglaws.org. They detail many of the motor vehicle laws. They note in particular the Utah law that penalizes all distracted driving. Point: Ramsey jumps at the problem, is “ramming” through a partial law that is not well-researched and incomplete. Are there countless other activities (even by adults) that are distracted driving that could endanger driving safety? Yes. But we are rushing to put a sloppy coat of spackle on the wall. Why? To grab a headline or two (“I did something!”) and make testimonial speeches on how scared he was, trumpeting “Matty’s Law.” The better approach is a reasoned, comprehensive approach. This is why, for example, our tax code is equal to three full copy boxes full of paper and why Americans can’t even take a breath without a lawyer. No, more laws and more lawyers is most assuredly not the solution.

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If you are an AARP member, do you find it interesting you receive numerous reminder billings during the year regarding your dues? I joined last May and three or so weeks later received a bill to join, so I phoned. They confirmed they received my payment. Couple of months later, maybe three, I receive a reminder to pay my dues, I phoned and they confirmed they were due May 2009. Again approximately three months later, I receive a reminder notice of dues. This time I phoned and complained they were not only wasting money with the mailings and plastic member cards they keep sending with no expiration date, but it was annoying. I also questioned this practice, as I felt sure they are receiving duplicate payments from the more elderly that may not realize they are overpaying. I just received another reminder. I voiced my opinion again and found out you can remove your name from this reminder list. However, I am also writing the CEO William Novelli and copying my congressman. I hope you will if you agree with all this waste of mailings and confusion for us seniors.

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If AIG is obligated to pay out millions in bonuses because it is in the contract, how about the millions of American workers whose employment contracts were summarily broken and they were sent walking without a dollar in their pockets? All of those people lost their jobs and future income because of these greedy pigs at AIG and other big corporations. Now they are feeding off the tax money we all pay and continuing to live the high life while millions lose their homes and are starving because of their greed.