Five McIntosh

High School students got an up-close lesson on occupying the hot seat

Tuesday afternoon during a mock Peachtree City Council meeting.

Kathryn Murphy,

who served as mayor, led the meeting with councilmen Robert Jones, Amit

Salkar, Daniel Graham and Courtney Hudson. They got an earful on the two

agenda items they covered the possible location of a multi-purpose recreation

center and whether the city should pay to upgrade and repair privately

owned streets in local neighborhoods.

The street

debate became somewhat heated, as other students took to the podium to

address the issues. Some felt the for-sale Braelinn Baptist Church campus

on Robinson Road would be an ideal location for the multi-purpose center.

Others thought it would be better to renovate Westpark Walk's movie theaters

for the center.

A place is

needed for local bands to play, others added.

Eventually,

the mock council voted unanimously to select the Braelinn Baptist building

as the preferred site for the multi-purpose center.

The most spirited

debate was over the streets issue. On one hand, residents on private streets

pay city taxes, too and perhaps the city should pay the million or so

dollars to upgrade the streets to city standards.

Still others

argued that other taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for the streets upgrading

or the annual maintenance through repairs.

Even current

Councilwoman Annie McMenamin swapped roles, playing a concerned citizen

who lived on a private street. She implored council to take care of the

private streets since those residents pay taxes too.

The mock council

decided to begin maintaining private streets after they were upgraded

to city standards at the expense of the residents on those private streets.

The meeting

was part of Georgia Cities Week, and the local Kiwanis club helped put

the event together. The mock council meeting is an annual staple at City

Hall, and many department heads and employees attended the mock meeting.

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