Fayetteville used to be a great place to raise children

Fayetteville

used to be a great place to raise children

Myself and many of

my neighbors are so disappointed with how so many

different issues are being handled in the City of

Fayetteville. What most people fail to recognize is that

all the issues, growth, SPLOST, and the new jail are all

connected.

The growth in this city

needed to be handled several years ago. The streets

needed to be upgraded before all of these new homes and

businesses come into place. How is Ga. Highway 85 in the

middle of our city supposed to handle all of this

traffic? We have no room for growth through the center of

town.

How could our Board of

Education expect to pass a SPLOST without details of what

they want to do? It is very disappointing to see a fairly

new school with trailers already. That was bad planning.

How was this SPLOST going to affect our children? This

SPLOST was for the growth of Fayetteville - to

encourage and maintain the growth, but what about the

children that are in the trailers now? Passing the SPLOST

was not for us that live here but for those that certain

people wanted to attract to our community.

Last but not least, the new

jail and judicial complex. Understandably so, we would

have eventually needed a new jail. But what is so

alarming is the size of this facility. Phase one [will

have] approximately 350 beds and the same for phase two.

Is there a phase three? No one knows. In five to 10

years, this could be a 800-plus-bed facility. We would

not need such a facility if the growth of our community

was handled better. Also, let's not forget where they

want to put this monstrosity - almost the center of

town, and near many surrounding schools.

Let's talk about bad

planning - this is a plan the county has had for 15

years. What worked 15 years ago does not work for us

today. I am part of an effort to stop or alter or somehow

change the location of this facility. This is proving to

be difficult, especially when the county commission will

not put jail discussions on the agenda as requested

several times.

Our county commissioners

are saying that there is much erroneous information out

there - then let's hold a public forum regarding the

issues! There has been no official public forum regarding

jail issues that we the people have been notified of.

The general consensus I get

from people is that they are disappointed almost to the

point of apathy to all of these issues; we are so

frustrated and disappointed in our once beautiful city

and county. Our disappointment in the end is directed to

our mayor, city council, county commissioners, planning

and zoning commission and the board of education.

Does our local government

not read the local papers? All I have read and heard with

in the last few years is that people in this community

are complaining about the growth. People from our

government should be reading our local papers to feel

what the hearts in our community are saying.

When we moved here six

years ago the real estate agent took me through Peachtree

City, then through Fayetteville. Peachtree City looked to

be too much of a [Planned Unit development]. But

Fayetteville appealed to us with its small, hometown

feeling: An old courthouse in the center of town,

wonderful friendly people and a great place to raise our

children. Unfortunately this is no more!

You can't appreciate the

center of town and the old courthouse with all the

traffic surrounding it. The people are still very

friendly, but this is no longer a place to raise our

children. I guess one out of three isn't too bad (yeah,

right!).

There was a time we could

hear the Sunday church bells from the center of town. We

no longer hear them. That is not just bad planning -

that is sad!

Marilyn Benedetti

Fayetteville

[email protected]

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