Letters to the Editor

Time for Horgan to accept responsibility

Fayette County Commissioner Robert Horgan is appealing the ruling of his county ethics violation on the grounds that “he was not acting as a county commissioner at the time of his arrest nor was he in a county-owned vehicle at the time” (emphasis mine). Excuse me but that reasoning just does not hold water. Read More»

House must act now on child nutrition

Here is some good news: With strong leadership from Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the Senate recently unanimously passed a child nutrition bill that could help make our children healthier and our nation stronger.

The bill not only would take the steps needed to remove junk food from our school cafeterias and enable millions of children to develop healthier eating habits, but it would also help address a serious problem in military recruiting. Read More»

Newly proposed cell tower ordinance gives power to the people

Recently the Peachtree City Planning Commission recommended the approval of a newly revised cell tower ordinance with the goal of maximizing the level of city control over any future proposed cell towers. After attending all of the meetings on the subject, I salute the effort that city staff and planning commission went through to revise our current ordinance and believe they have accomplished this goal. If anyone takes the time to actually READ the proposed ordinance they will hopefully see just that. Read More»

Lame duck Smith meddling in which mayor goes back to ARC

It is truly unbelievable how hard a few rejected people in local government are now working to totally circumvent the will of the people in Fayette County, trying to push the West Fayetteville Bypass forward and keep our county in the regional mass transit plan.

Every year all of the mayors within the county are to gather and select one mayor as the second representative (the county commission chairman is the first representative) to the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). In addition, the mayors now also have to select a mayor for a regional transportation roundtable. Read More»

What to ban after gas carts? Gas lawnmowers?

Mayor and council, my name is Danny Allen, and I am a manager at Partners Pizza in Peachtree City, as well as a concerned resident. I know some of you have eaten at my restaurant and have family that has worked with me.

I tried to get to the council meeting last night, but was unable to attend.

I am the owner of a gas-powered golf cart, but more importantly I have been a bicyclist on the city’s path system for over 36 years. In those years I have come to appreciate the gas-powered cart, because you can hear them coming. Read More»

If PTC bans gas carts, are iPod earbuds next?

If you read The Citizen on Saturday or attended the City Council meeting on Aug. 5, you know that the mayor and his council are going to ban gas golf carts simply because they don’t like them.

No factual reasons exist to ban these carts from our cart paths. The group who owns them number only 488, and the council probably believes they can get away with this because of the small number of people who will own worthless property. Read More»

Pfeifer: County could halt West Bypass today

I keep hearing, or seeing, statements from some writers or from some county commissioners and their staff about the SPLOST and the East and “West” bypasses.

These statements simply don’t make any sense. Here’s why.

We had a SPLOST adopted by the voters of Fayette County in 2003. There were many potential projects on the list for that SPLOST. The law says that SPLOST money can only be spent on projects that were on the list when the voters adopted the SPLOST. Read More»

Commissioner-elect Brown: Stop West Bypass, hold on to county cash

The letters to the editor in the local newspapers regarding government at all levels can best be described by the catch phrase from the Verizon cell phone commercials: “Can you hear me now?”

The establishment frontrunners at all levels are finding things out the hard way. Republican John Oxendine was leading all of the polls in the months heading into our gubernatorial primary election and he finished in the middle of the pack. Karen Handel leapt to the head of the line because she was viewed as an outsider, least affected by the influences of the non-caring establishment. Read More»

West Bypass controversy continues to simmer

The power of each and every vote was clearly demonstrated with the results of our July 20 Primary. With the West Bypass issue being the central point of contention, Jack Smith and Eric Maxwell were defeated in 80 percent of the precincts in Fayette County.

The precincts adjacent to and surrounding the West Bypass overwhelmingly voted against Smith, Maxwell and the West Bypass. That is understandable. Those folks have a stake in this issue and they have more than educated themselves. Read More»

To be fair, PTC must reopen the Cedarcroft/Hwy. 74 cart path

Last year at a Cedarcroft neighbors’ meeting with the builder, Ravin Homes, safety, vandalism and golf cart traffic issues were discussed. There were complaints from the people that live next to the cart paths, as their homes are built too close to them. The resolution was to close the golf cart paths that bring outside traffic to Walmart through our community and redirect the traffic outside of Cedarcroft. Read More»