Can anyone explain why Fayette County would change the PSAT testing date from a Wednesday, Oct. 13 when they offered it to all students during school to a three-day holiday weekend Saturday, Oct. 16? Many students are still unaware of this new testing plan and as students are out on Friday they are taking advantage of the three days off.
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I can’t help but notice how a sizable portion of your editorials are highly critical of the black community. It’s convenient to point out that all those columnists are black, but the fact still stands that those articles (in The Citizen’s case) are fodder for a largely white audience. I have yet to read one article that is critical of the white community. I can’t help but suspect that your newspaper is trying to espouse a point of view and is pandering to white people who have a distorted view of the black community.
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When did the Peachtree City Library reference room become a babysitting service? Children tie up the computers playing games, pounding the keys loudly, talking, eating and drinking snacks, and the parent is nowhere to be seen. Wait, I correct myself. One parent delivered the snacks, and then left. Great use of our tax dollars (sarcasm intended), and so inconsiderate to those who need to use the computers for schoolwork, research, etc. Also, the cyclists on Peachtree Parkway are really putting us all, including themselves, at risk. Most ignore the stop signs at the intersections, don’t stay to the right, and don’t signal. Does a tragedy have to happen for things to change?
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I would like to thank the citizens of Peachtree City who take it upon themselves to mow the grass at the entrances to their subdivisions, and along city-owned property on the streets themselves. Kudos to you, and shame on Peachtree City Public Works. Whatever happened to the vision that was Peachtree City?
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Peachtree City is a great place and it’s known for its golf cart trails. I often drive my golf cart from the northern part of Peachtree City to Walmart, the Avenue, and other shops near the 74/54 intersection. I used to be able to take the trail through the Cedarcroft subdivision, but they have build fences to keep people out. Why is this? I have a map of Cedarcroft Phase 3 and it shows golf cart trails through the subdivision, yet the lady at the model home said that they were all eliminated. I know that I am not the only one upset about this. What makes this subdivision so special that they don’t have to have trails? I will be calling all of the council members and the mayor and I hope others that use these trails will also call.
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I do not need politicians to call me every hour on the hour and tell me for whom I should vote. I am an informed voter with a brain and any politician that calls my home and ask me to vote for their buddy (good ol’ boy system) gets a vote for the opposition. Politicians, wake up: You are the one to be voted against next.
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Lynn Westmoreland, you called me on a Sunday with your endorsements while I was watching the golf tournament. Then you had the audacity to call again during the NASCAR race. Fuggetaboutit — no vote from me for your buddies or for you in the future.
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Attention, parents of Auburn-bound students: There is a shop just off Toomer’s Corner called “Da Gallery” whose name might suggest it is a poster or art shop. Not so! Da Gallery is a full-blown head shop which concentrates on selling drug paraphernalia. It gets away with it by saying the wall-to-wall hookas and hash pipes for sale are meant for smoking tobacco. Right … So, just a heads up. If you see charges on your student’s debit card from Da Gallery, you can be pretty sure they’re not buying posters. Auburn should be ashamed for allowing this business to locate on their campus border, right next to “famous” Toomer’s Corner, no less. You owe it to yourself to check it out when you take your campus tour. I have a student at Auburn, and I know I was outraged when I found it.
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More Braelinn shopping woes: I would have thought that the owner would have planned something to encourage shoppers to drive their golf carts to shop. The only place you see cart parking spots is in front of the small shops. There is absolutely no parking for any vehicle anywhere near the fronts of Kroger or Kmart. They have marked it “Fire Zone Area.” (I suppose the small shops will never have a fire?) And there are very few places to return your shopping cart at Kroger. I agree with so many that the Braelinn Shopping Center looks nicer. It’s great to have golf cart parking right along the shop fronts. The biggest attractor is Kroger. Where are the parking spots in front of Kroger? Too bad the designers didn’t think of that.
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To the young woman who was speeding down Robinson Road at Peachtree Parkway. You almost killed my family of four on our golf cart by speeding and not even tapping your brakes as you blew through the stop sign. Luckily, I am a backseat driver and screamed as we pulled into the street noticing that you weren’t slowing down as you approached the intersection. You flew by so quickly without touching brakes, so I couldn’t get your license plate number. Please keep your mind on the road; you came inches from changing or ending four lives plus your own.
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To the citizens of Peachtree City, what great things could Peachtree City do with $38,000? Most citizens of Peachtree City probably do not know this, but the architecture firm of Leo Daly has just been hired to carry out an addition (2,400 sq. ft.) and a renovation to one of the city’s fire stations for the fee of $58,000. This job did NOT go out for bids. If it had been bid on, citizens of Peachtree City would have known that the $58,000 fee Daly is charging is about $40,000 MORE than what it normally should be. Another architect, whose firm has done fire stations in Peachtree City, informed me that the general fee for a commercial project these days is about $3 per square foot — on a good day — and sometimes less with competition. He also told me that his total fee, which would include the extra items (i.e., items not in Daly’s $58K fee), would have been less than $20,000. Citizens of Peachtree City, we must wake up and require the Peachtree City Purchasing Department to send architectural services out for bid.
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It’s good to see that all of PTC’s problems have been solved. As seen in The Citizen July 24, the new crusade the mayor has launched himself into: banning gas-powered golf carts. I guess one of the mayor’s neighbors complained to him regarding the noise. I am sure the next council meeting will spend lots of important time on this new project.
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Why can’t the owner of The Detail Store on the corner of Crosstown Road and Hwy. 74 mow the weeds that front his property? The other two business owners on that corner have embraced their location and have enhanced that corner to be attractive. It’s obvious GDOT is not going to do it for him, and he continues to cheapen one of the premier corners for business in the city. Even the closed business up the road, the old Backyard Burgers, are keeping their frontage groomed. Cheap, cheap, cheap.
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The proposed banning of gas golf carts is one of the silliest things our city government has come up with yet. They need to be figuring out ways to encourage people to drive cars less instead of more. With grass two feet high on greenspaces, they are worried about a few gas golf carts. Go figure. There is already a law that is to go into effect this year and next that will require small engines such as golf carts to meet strict emission requirements. Gas golf carts make less noise than most cars. The noise is different than that of a car. Using a decibel meter, I would bet there would be less noise, especially with the air conditioner running. After all these years of having cart paths, there are still only an estimated 5 percent of the carts that are gas powered. That is around 400 total. These carts probably produce fewer emissions in a year than one traffic light change at a major intersection does in one hour. Can anyone think the percentage of gas carts will drastically increase? My gut feeling is that the mayor is reacting to the few people who “chose” to buy a home adjacent to a cart path, and now want to ban everyone from driving next to their home. Do we really want a city government that tells us what type cart to use?
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Come on, PTC Mayor Don, we elected you to be one of us, not above us. As you walk down Flat Creek Trail behind Dover Square, you can’t help but notice the beautiful mature trees recently planted by Peachtree City in a run-off, retention pond area. It sure seems like a waste of our hard-earned taxpayers’ money during these austere times to plant mature trees in a run-off area recently cleared by Peachtree City due to overgrowth. Seems strange till you find out the area is directly behind Mayor Don’s property. Guess he didn’t like the view. You’d think we could spend our hard-earned money on better projects than that, wouldn’t you, Mayor, Council? Someone said it cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars for this project. Look for yourself, it should make our mayor red-faced, with shame, not anger. Go figure.
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Why does the Fayette County DA’s office care more about protecting the guilty that live in their county than enforcing the law and assisting citizens who live outside of Fayette County? A resident of Peachtree City embezzled over $30,000 from my company, based outside of Fayette County. The Fayette County DA’s office spent over 18 months working on this case, investigating, arraigning, and bringing this person to trial. The day before trial was to start, I went to the DA’s office, was greeted by the ADA who had worked the case, along with the DA himself, and as we sat around their conference table, they apologized, but informed me that they had dropped all charges. Yes, they had proof. Yes, they had the cancelled checks. Yes, they even had a confession. But they lacked jurisdiction since your local Peachtree City thief had deposited the checks out of the county. The DA looked me in the eye, promised that they would do “everything possible” to help with other jurisdictions getting the information, making calls to get the ball rolling, doing whatever they could to bring this person to justice and now six months later, they have done nothing, will not return a phone call, will not even return an email to me. DA Ballard, I can not tell you how disappointed I am that you wasted 18 months of your taxpayers’ money, and then lied to me about trying to help bring justice in other courts. All you have done is stonewall the justice system to allow your Peachtree City criminal to continue to live his life without having to officially face his day in court, much less pay back the money he stole from my company. Shame on you. Why are you protecting the criminals and not helping the victims?
