Talk of

annexing property west of Ga. Highway 74 to create a

fifth Peachtree City village has spanned beyond our

little town, and become a safety matter and one heck of a

dilemma for the Fayette County school system. This is one

of those times when I would imagine a school system would

like to nestle down for a long nap and not come out until

the coast was clear, but the cat is already out of the

bag.

For Debbie Condon,

chairwoman of the Fayette County Board of Education, the

question of annexation hinges on the developers'

willingness to donate land for an elementary school and

build a connector road and overpass to bridge the West

Village with the rest of Peachtree City, eliminating

grade-level rail crossings for school buses transporting

children.

Condon stated that she

"want[s] a bridge, the connector road, and a school

site with connections to sewer, because I don't want to

be in the sewer business. If there were any other way

achieve that, other than annexing the property, then I

would say do it," added Condon.

Mike Satterfield, Director

of Facilities Services for the Fayette school system,

indicated that even with the "no annexation"

option, an additional school will be needed to

accommodate the students who would move in under the

current land use plan, and for those expected to move in

to other already permitted sites. The most critical issue

for the school system then becomes student safety.

Jerry Whitaker,

vocational/land acquisition coordinator for Fayette

schools, visited both grade-level rail crossings and

found both potentially dangerous for busloads of school

children.

The one on old Hwy. 74,

north of its intersection with the four-lane Hwy. 74, has

a limited sight distance, which is a disaster in the

making, and the crossing by the cable company has a short

distance in which to navigate and/or make corrections if

needed to avoid an accident.

Mr. Whitaker indicated that

we do have grade-level crossings in a few areas of

Fayette over which school buses must cross, but none as

potentially dangerous as those in the proposed West

Village site.

The quandary for the school

system is the need to make the best of the situation in

terms of safety and cost, while at the same time

remaining politically unblemished by a not-so-popular

annexation vote which may prove a public relations

quagmire the next time the school system finds itself

asking the community for money to fund construction

needs.

A really interesting twist

in all of this is that there may exist another funding

source for the bridge to span the rail crossing,

according to David Millen, Georgia Department of

Transportation pre-construction engineer for District 3,

which includes Fayette.

For an area that the DOT

clearly has an interest in, "it would absolutely be

appropriate that DOT personnel from the intermodal,

planning, and maybe even enhancement offices begin to

work with Peachtree City along the 74 corridor,"

Millen said.

The commuter rail destined

for Fayette County will run parallel to Hwy. 74 on the

existing CSX rails. Though specific station locations

have not been identified, there will be stops in Tyrone,

Peachtree City and Senoia, which will be the end of the

line, slated for completion by 2009.

According to Millen, if

safety is a concern (and with nearby residential

development I would say that is a given), there would be

a variety of avenues to pursue for funding of an

overpass, most at the federal level.

Millen is more than willing

to participate in the local discussions, and believes his

office should be involved. We have a little more homework

to do.

Undoubtedly in terms of

public perception, it would be better for the school

system to distance itself from the local politics of an

annexation discussion, but faced with the seemingly

inevitable, Debbie Condon is banking on getting the most

bang for the buck.

Though the school system

has no official stance on the annexation, clearly they

can't sit back and pretend that this decision has no

impact on our schools. Let's just hope that the bang

doesn't backfire.

The same Peachtree City

voters who carried the SPLOST vote in every city precinct

are many of the same voters who do not favor high density

growth and development for the West Village.

Mrs. Condon is critical of

those who want "to close the door [on future

residents] now that they're here," yet many

residents came here because of its relatively undeveloped

character. That is what they want to protect.

We were sold on the notion

of "build out." I hope we weren't sold a bill

of goods.

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