What will become

of Keep Fayette Beautiful is a question the organization's staff and volunteers

will be kicking around in the coming weeks.

Saying they

don't see enough evidence of support from the community and the county's

other governments, county commissioners last week stuck by their decision

to cut the group out of the county budget for fiscal 2002, promising to

revisit the issue in six months. The county has provided the only direct

administrative funding for the group, $25,000 a year, though other cities

and local industry have given cash contributions and in-kind goods and

services to support individual projects, according to officials.

Marie Short,

who became the troubled group's director last year, said this week she

will be looking for guidance from the KFB Board of Directors about what

the future holds.

Meanwhile,

she is puzzled at the commission's decision, she said, because she believes

KFB is well-supported and is actively carrying out its purpose in Fayette.

The group formed

in the mid-1980s, and became an affiliate of the national Keep America

Beautiful program, an antilitter, environmental education organization,

about ten years ago. It operates an annual Christmas tree recycling program,

chipping the trees for free and offering free mulch, along with cleanup

campaigns and educational programs in Fayette schools, teaching students

and teachers about recycling, conservation and the negative effects of

littering.

Peachtree City

gives about $50,000 a year to the organization, she said, for specific

projects. And Brooks has promised $5,000 to promote a project in that

town.

Before the

commission made its decision last week, Yamaha Corp. pledged to match

all contributions at 50 cents on the dollar, Short said.

"They

[the commission] didn't want to count that money either," she said.

"What money do they want to count?"

The group can

continue to operate without the county's contribution, she said, but some

volunteers are pondering whether it should do so as a county-wide organization.

"We can

operate out of Peachtree City and work with other cooperative towns and

not try to have a county-wide program," said Short. But, she added,

"It would be such a shame to only operate in a community that's already

so effective" at environmental and beautification projects.

She said KFB's

annual Christmas tree chipping project alone, which costs about $10,000

to run, saves the county more than its $25,000 contribution.

"Twenty-five

thousand dollars wouldn't even put a dent in what they're going to spend

to chip Christmas trees," she said.

Short said

she hopes to continue to drum up support in the community, and possibly

do a better job of showing that support to commissioners when they reconsider

funding KFB in six months. The problem, she said, is that the six months

falls just before the Christmas tree recycling program in January, not

leaving enough time to put that project together if the funding should

come through.

KFB's board

will meet in mid-July to consider its options for the future, Short said.

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