When state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh

broke the news last week that the widening of Ga. Highway 74 South would

be moved up to begin in 2005, some of the county's most well-connected

movers and shakers appeared to be caught by surprise.

If Steve Brown was among them,

he won't admit it.

The Peachtree City mayor said

Monday he was unfazed by Seabaugh's announcement, made Friday morning

at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Wyndham Peachtree Conference

Center.

"They're just trying

to make me look bad," Brown said of his detractors at the chamber,

the county commission and within Fayette's legislative delegation,

all of whom have butted heads with the mayor over road funding in recent

months. Most blame him directly for delaying work on the TDK Boulevard

Extension to Coweta County, a charge he denies.

He also denies any truth to

a rumor making the rounds that he was "kicked out" of Tom Coleman's

office when Coleman was still DOT commissioner, allegedy for trying to

tell the state how to prioritize its projects.

"We went to Tom Coleman

way back with the plans for TDK and we talked about the Hwy. 54 Living

Cities Initiative plan," said Brown. "There's never been

any fights with them. In fact, I've been amazed that they've

given us so much."

Indeed, if Brown is not held

in high regard by state highway officials, it didn't hurt the Hwy.

74 acceleration.

According to Seabaugh, the

$30 million project is set to begin in the 2006 budget year, which starts

in summer 2005. Right of way acquisition for the northern leg from Hwy.

54 to Crosstown Road will begin in 90 days, he said. Work on the northern

stretch will commence first, and construction from Crosstown Road to Hwy.

85 at Starr's Mill will complete the project.

"Hwy. 74 has been moved

up to the most aggressive schedule there is," Seabaugh said Friday,

crediting the work of state representatives John Yates, John Lunsford

and Lynn Westmoreland, along with Fayette County Commission Chairman Greg

Dunn, in helping make the project a priority.

The senator said Sam Wellborn,

the Department of Transportation board member who represents Fayette County,

and DOT Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl also played a major role in speeding

up the project. There was no mention of Brown, who was in attendance.

But the mayor echoed Seabaugh's

opinion that the expanded highway will have a near immediate effect on

efforts to recruit new industry, since Hwy. 74 is the main truck route

to the interstates, airport and Atlanta.

"Now that we can get people

in and out like we need to," said Seabaugh.

Brown had made the expansion

of Hwy. 74 through the city's industrial section a goal since taking

office two years ago, insisting that a bigger roadway was necessary before

the city could absorb any industry. That position is blamed for delaying

the extension of TDK Boulevard into Coweta County, a road project that

Brown has never supported and chamber officials say he intentionally has

stalled.

This week, county officials

were to meet with state officials to hammer out the details on funding

for the road, and Coweta County is expected to start work on its section

of TDK any day now. Combined with Seabaugh's news, Brown's days

of naysaying TDK are over.

"Philosophically, I've

never been opposed to TDK," he said Monday. "We were in a tight

budget year last year and without the widening of 74, the most relief

TDK is going to bring us is two to three years. Is traffic relief really

worth risking other current budget needs?"

His beef now, said Brown, is

that the city isn't getting its fair shake in the county's proposed

$400 million transportation plan, a position that clearly irritated officials

from other jurisdictions who gathered in late October to consider the

proposal.

Brown said Dunn "is trying

to say that the money they've spent on TDK already is the reason

why Peachtree City is not getting its share of road funds. But I didn't

want TDK extended. And now he wants my money to take care of Fayetteville."

While the top three priorities

on the county's transportation wish list involve projects to relieve

congestion in downtown Fayetteville, the next two are exclusive to Peachtree

City.

Number 4 on the list is a reconfiguration

of the Hwy. 54-Hwy. 74 intersection that would create non-stop through-lanes

for southbound traffic, estimated to cost $3.5 million.

That bold attempt to eliminate

traffic tie-ups at the intersection won't be included in the widening

project announced by Seabaugh, however.

Brown said his efforts to open

discussion on Hwy.74's future by bringing together representatives

of each of the jurisdictions that lay claim to a stretch of the highway

will continue.

In fact, early this week letters

went out to nearby cities not already on board with the study group asking

them for input.

Union City, Sharpsburg, Fayetteville,

Haralson and others are being asked to join the study, said Brown. A meeting

to update the group on progress, including the latest news, will be held

before the end of the year, he said.

Back

to News Home Page |