Fayette County Commissioner David Barlow said last Thursday that he does not share the position of some of his colleagues regarding the lack of a reciprocal golf cart agreement with Peachtree City.
Referring to a story that ran in The Citizen a few weeks ago, Barlow said he is not among the “county officials” who are “frustrated” with the situation. He spoke about the issue during his regular comment time at the most recent Fayette County Board of Commissioners meeting.
“I was not elected to run the City Council of Peachtree City, nor was I elected to make decisions for them over there. I was elected to make decisions for the county,” he said. “Whatever the Peachtree City leadership does – that’s the mayor and council – they certainly will not get criticisms from me.”
Golf cart operators in unincorporated Fayette County must register their vehicles separately in Peachtree City to drive in the city, and Peachtree City cart owners must do the same in Fayette County, or they risk receiving citations for driving an unregistered cart. The county has an agreement in place with Fayetteville and Tyrone so that this is not necessary in those jurisdictions.
County officials reached out to Peachtree City in August in an attempt to put together an agreement, but the city manager notified the county in a letter that such a deal would not be taking place. Among the reason cited by the city were the fact that county owners to do pay property taxes to keep up the city’s cart system and the lack of access city law enforcement staff would have to county owners’ registration information.
Commission Chairman Steve Brown presented the letter at the Aug. 28 board meeting and expressed his disappointment with the decision. None of the other commissioners commented on the matter at that time.
Brown pointed out that the decision will likely result in many Peachtree City residents having to pay an out-of-jurisdiction fee to ride their golf carts in Fayette County. Failure to require this would be unfair to county residents, he said.
Barlow does not share that view, as he pointed out last week.
“I, for one, do not think the county should charge for the Peachtree City folks having their golf carts come into the county,” he said. “We put county roads and county cart [paths] out there for our citizens. We are going to take care of them.”
Barlow referred to Fayette County as a “family” and the five cities in the county as its “siblings.” This is how he explained it to Peachtree City’s mayor, he said.
“If our big sister Peachtree City has a problem we are going to take care of her, even if we don’t always agree with her,” he said. “We all have family members we disagree with but when it comes right down to it, we’re still a family. I want the folks in Peachtree City to know that I consider them part of the family, and I will help them any way I can.”
Brown said Friday that there was no change to the golf cart situation.
“It looks like it will be permanent,” he said. “They’ve [Peachtree City] shown no sign of moving at all.”
