Mr. Arvay, I noted with interest that you live hundreds of miles from our fair county, and yet you have the unmitigated gall to tell us how to run our county.
Let us begin with your errors. The 1825 courthouse is on the National Historic Register. We have not torn down a house that would have belonged to a lieutenant governor.
I was a member of the original Main Street Committee 20 years ago that sought ways to keep our downtown businesses from being boarded up, which was happening in many small towns at that time. I’m pleased to say that we were successful.
That is why you were able in 2002 to be proud to have friends and relatives here for your wedding. Perhaps you might want to thank this committee for keeping Fayetteville a nice place to see.
We always have had, and continue to have, a “sense of place.”
We worked very hard to put our 1825 courthouse back together, when it was fire-bombed in 1983 and the majority of the then-commissioners were going to tear it down. You might want to also thank this committee.
I am well aware “historic” means it’s over 50 years old. But if it’s over 50 years old and has never had a cent of upkeep put in it, and it’s now years out of code, where do the funds come from to replace all the rotted interior flooring and walls and bring it up to code?
I have a suggestion: It will take nearly $400,000 to do this to the house you whine that the Fayetteville Methodist Church is taking down. Since they obviously don’t have the funds, if you send your check for this amount, and once it clears the bank, perhaps they would be glad to do this.
Or better yet, since you are so concerned about it, move the house, at your expense of course, and then you can preserve it however you think best.
You comment you would think twice about investing your money in Fayetteville. Frankly, my dear, just keep it. We’re doing just fine without it.
I find it downright shocking that an outsider would interfere in the affairs of a county they obviously don’t know very much about.
I have lived in Fayetteville for 46 years, I have worked tirelessly to save what made sense to save and regret that which I couldn’t save.
And I’m curious: There are two churches in Fayetteville, directly across the street from each other. Their congregations both go back to the late 1820s. Each has taken down the same number of houses to be able to stay where they are. Yet you only picked on the Methodist Church. Can’t figured out why — hmmm.
In fact, we have five congregations that go back to the late 1820s, and they are still here with viable congregations.
Can Milton, Florida say that?
Carolyn Cary
Official Historian for Fayette County, Georgia (appointed in 1981)
Fayetteville, Ga.
