After being

accused of lying to the public in a letter to the editor that criticized

Mayor Steve Brown, former mayor Bob Lenox got to clear the air when he

addressed the City Council last week.

In the letter

to the editor, Lenox had accused Brown of "squandering" $825,000

to purchase approximately five acres of land at the entrance to the Wynnmeade

subdivision. He said the money should have instead been set aside for

road projects such as the extension of TDK Boulevard into Coweta County.

Lenox argued

at the meeting that before the land purchase, the matter should have been

debated in public instead of behind closed doors. Instead, it was purchased

"before the public ever knew anything about it."

Lenox also

contended that the property may not usable for a cart path bridge as now

planned, and the city should have done an engineering study before the

property was purchased.

When Lenox

was in office, he said the plan was to save about a million dollars from

the city's lease-purchasing program to use for road projects, which are

difficult to handle because of the timing issues involved.

"We didn't

do anything publicly, but I can assure you as the financial planner for

the city in conjunction with a couple of the senior managers who are no

longer with us, we said 'This is our shotgun behind the door when we need

big money for roads.'" Lenox said. "... Everybody up here can

take issue with my choice of wording in the paper but the fact of the

matter is I didn't tell any lies. And I resent the fact that I'm sitting

out there being called a liar."

The million

dollars was "tucked away," with no commitments on how the money

would be spent. In his mind, it was set aside to take care of the city's

road projects.

"It was

not in the budget, and in fact when it was spent for the land that was

bought with it, the land wasn't in the budget either," Lenox said.

Councilman

Steve Rapson said the method of financing used for the Wynnmeade property

could not be used to fund road projects.

The loan Lenox

had referred to was for $3 million to purchase equipment over the next

three years, Rapson said.

"If you're

proposing we don't buy fire engines and police cars, which is the bulk

of that money was for the next two or three years, then you're right.

... perhaps we could redirect some of that $3 million. But that was not

the council intent and there was never a million dollars of mystery road

contingency money set aside."

Lenox also

said that one of the city's reasons to purchase the land was invalid:

to stop strip commercial development on Ga. Highway 54. Since the land

was zoned for residential use, council did not have to rezone the property

for commercial use.

"I think

the developer in this case sold Mayor Brown a bridge and he sold it to

you guys, and it was the Brooklyn bridge," Lenox said.

"They

were land-planned for commercial and we would not have survived a lawsuit

for commercial zoning," Brown replied.

But the land

use plan called for one of the parcels to have a limited use commercial

zoning where it could only be used as a bank or day care. The other parcel

was land use planned residential, Lenox added.

"Here's

an irony. I spent three years of my life being beat up by Mr. Brown because

I couldn't stop Wal-Mart from being built on 40 acres of land that has

been zoned commercial for 30 years. Now Mr. Brown sits up there and tells

me he cannot stop a gas station from being built on residential land that's

been zoned residential for 30 years. I think you owe me an apology. I

really do."

"We needed

somewhere to land a bridge, Bob," Brown said.

Rapson later

added that he felt the Wynnmeade land purchase was "probably the

single-most thing this council's going to be known for" in 10 years

"because that's critical property."

"The stopping

of development, the park at Wynnmeade and the golf cart bridge, all of

those are critical to the future success and the future quality of life

in Peachtree City," Rapson said.

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