Motorists who

travel the often-clogged Ga. Highway 54 West in Peachtree City got fantastic

news earlier this year when it was announced that the Georgia Department

of Transportation was "fast-tracking" the widening of the thoroughfare

to four lanes.

The project

could begin as early as late summer, according to DOT officials. Right-of-way

acquisition is 30 percent complete on the Peachtree City side and 70 percent

complete on the Coweta side of the project.

The traffic

jams on Hwy. 54 West have become routine both in the morning and afternoon,

with noticeable slowdowns for motorists travelling east into Peachtree

City.

While the two-and-a-half

year estimated construction time will almost certainly slow things down

further, DOT officials have pledged to do their best to keep traffic moving,

especially during peak hours.

Other top stories

in Peachtree City this year include:

Politics in

Peachtree City took a rancorous turn coinciding with the entry of new

Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown.

The political

rhetoric was at least partly to blame in the September resignation of

long-time city manager Jim Basinger. After council declined to renew his

contract, Basinger chose to resign.

Some council

members "erroneously felt that I was still aligned with the previous

administration," Basinger said at the time. "Nothing could be

further from the truth."

Just days before

Basinger's resignation, former mayor Bob Lenox filed papers in Magistrate

Court claiming Brown should be arrested for theft of city services for

having a city employee drive one of his daughters to golf camp while he

attended a meeting for the city.

Judge Joe Tinsley

denied Lenox's request for an arrest warrant against Brown.

Before Lenox

complained, Brown publicly cited himself for the slip-up, noting that

the employee volunteered to take his daughter to golf camp. Brown also

admitted violating the ethics ordinance.

After the arrest

hearing concluded, Brown repaid the city the $8.94 tab for the estimated

half-hour the employee spent on transporting his daughter to the Braelinn

golf club.

Basinger was

not the only long-time high-ranking city employee to resign this year.

Director of Developmental Services Jim Williams resigned his post in June

so he could become city manager in Fairburn. Williams said with Peachtree

City being close to its build-out stage, he wanted the challenge of managing

growth in Fairburn, which is becoming a popular destination for development.

Nor was Brown

the only Peachtree City elected official to be scrutinized by Lenox. The

former mayor filed an ethics complaint against councilman Steve Rapson

in May, alleging that Rapson should have abstained from council votes

regarding the city's development authority since his wife, Kristi, is

suing them in federal court, alleging she was unfairly paid compared to

then-tennis center director Virgil Christian.

The city's

ethics board voted 3-2 that Rapson violated the city's ethics ordinance,

but board members declined to issue a formal reprimand and "admonished"

him instead.

Rapson contended

that he felt compelled to vote on the matter, which was whether or not

the council should hire an independent attorney to investigate the hotel-motel

tax agreements Lenox signed with the development and airport authorities

last year.

Lenox contended

everything was done above board, but the independent attorney gave council

an opinion that the contracts could be declared illegal in court.

Brown's ongoing

dispute with the city's Development Authority over its share of the city's

hotel-motel tax has also been a significant story in 2002.

Brown originally

sought to cut the authority's share of the city's hotel-motel tax, which

it uses to subsidize operation of the city's tennis center and amphitheater.

The authority and city council approved similar agreements in November

to resolve the matter, pending a few details, but since then Brown called

for all the authority members to resign, citing financial mismanagement,

particularly with several hundred thousand dollars of cost overruns at

the tennis center expansion.

Councilmen

Dan Tennant and Murray Weed, who negotiated the deal with several authority

members, were caught off guard by the mayor's request. Tennant indicated

he thought the mayor's request was out of line.

Since then,

authority members reported the issue is still moving towards a resolution,

but Brown is insistent on transferring the tennis center and amphitheater

operations to a new sports and entertainment authority.

The city's

airport authority, which depends on the hotel-motel tax revenues to fund

capital improvement projects agreed in November to reduce its income from

the hotel-motel tax.

In July, the

City Council cut $1.3 million from its budget, with most of the cuts coming

from its public improvement plan.

Finance Director

Paul Salvatore warned council that it would face a similar fate next year

since the increased expenses that hiked the budget aren't going away.

The lion's

share of the $1.375 million budget hike was attributed to the increase

of claims on the city's self insurance fund, which many pointed out that

the council has no control over.

The cuts included

the expansion of the Gathering Place ($104,000), paving a parking lot

at the Meade softball fields ($250,000) and building restrooms and a concession

area at the Kedron multi-purpose rink ($150,000). Also, council scaled

down several projects including its street resurfacing program, cart path

resurfacing program and improvements to the intersection of Huddleston

Road and Dividend Drive.

Despite the

drastic budget cuts, council agreed to increase property taxes through

a .385 millage rate increase. The hike will cost an additional $31 a year

on a home with a fair market value of $200,000, according to Salvatore.

The 9 percent

increase in the millage rate was also rationalized to help avoid a more

dramatic increase next year.

Without a millage

increase this year, staff projected a 35 percent increase would be necessary

next year to balance the budget.

The .385 mill

increase will raise approximately $520,000 for the city.

Another of

Brown's early initiatives, a moratorium on all development, was shot down

The moratorium

was sought to give several committees more time to strengthen several

development ordinance, but since the moratorium was overruled only one

of those ordinances has been considered by council: for stormwater management.

In September,

council approved lowering the golf cart driving age to 15, which allowed

15-year-olds with valid driver's permits to drive unchaperoned for the

first time. Previously, the city required such drivers to be at least

16 years old.

Council also

voted to allow the 15-year-olds to drive with up to three immediate family

members" so they can transport their siblings when necessary. The

15-year-olds can also have just one passenger who is at least 15 years

old, according to the new ordinance.

Lowering the

cart driving age helped spark an onslaught of McIntosh students driving

their carts to school which created a parking problem on Prime Point since

carts weren't allowed on campus. But school officials created a separate

golf cart parking lot on campus to solve the problem.

Peachtree

City's industrial base took a hit in January when TDK Components USA announced

plans to cut its work force by almost one-third as part of a restructuring

plan that will eliminate an entire production line and streamline another.

The company

cut approximately 100 jobs as it eliminated production of inductors. That

will leave around 230 jobs at the plant for producing chip capacitors.

The moves were

in response to a "significant drop-off in customer demand brought

about by the current economic slowdown," according to TCU officials.

The reduction

comes on the heels of TCU dropping its production of VHS tapes and computer

CDs last year.

A $1.05 million

federal grant to help expand Falcon Field was announced in April by U.S.

Representative Mac Collins. The funds were used to purchase over 23 acres

for the Peachtree City Airport Authority.

The tract,

which was sold by Peachtree City Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Pathway

Communities, is adjacent to the airport and will allow for future growth

of hangar space. The authority wants to attract more aircraft service

operations to Falcon Field as well as more jet traffic.

The authority

will need to add infrastructure to the new property such as taxiways,

hangar sites, access roads, and parking lots for automobiles and aircraft.

Another contentious

issue for council this year was the traffic calming plan for Golf View

Drive, a collector road. after hearing complaints from Golf View residents,

council installed several four-way stops and two pairs of speed humps

to slow down traffic.

Motorists who

used the thoroughfare waged a honking campaign to protest, sounding off

their horns as they passed along on Golf View.

Council later

relented and removed most of the stop signs and part of the speed hump

design.

Sadly, Peachtree

City lost two community volunteers this year with the passing of long-time

Development Authority member Tom Farr and Planning Commissioner Rich Schumacher.

Both men were

lauded for the time and effort they gave toward making Peachtree City

a better place.

In September,

the six new covered courts at Peachtree City's tennis center were used

to keep a women's professional tournament on track. Heavy rains and high

winds that weekend also put a damper on the Great Georgia Airshow at Falcon

Field as aircraft couldn't fly their full patterns due to visibility problems.

Also, a brief

microburst brought strong winds that forced the evacuation of the public

at Falcon Field.

This fall,

Peachtree City got its first college presence as Clayton State College

and University began offering continuing education courses at the newly

completed tennis center office building. One of the facility's classrooms

is wired with high speed Internet connections.

Back

to News Home Page | Back

to the top of the page