Letters to the Editor

Haddix: SPLOST is double taxation

Fayette County has been trying to resolve how to pay for their stormwater needs. When it was confined to a county issue, Peachtree City stayed out of it. But now that the county is thinking about a SPLOST, we have been pulled in.

A county-wide SPLOST to pay for their stormwater is an attempt to circumvent using a county-only utility fee, which Peachtree City property owners do not pay. It is double taxation no matter how you try to explain it. Read More»

Sales tax has no link to stormwater issue

A general officer once criticized a briefing I gave him by saying, “Major Lentz, you’ve been drinking your own bath water.”

In that picturesque tradition, I suggest that the Fayette County Commissioners have been drinking their own stormwater.

The proposal for a stormwater special purpose local option sales tax (S-SPLOST) is about the most incomprehensible and wrong thing to have come out of that body in a long time. Read More»

Brown: ‘Morally right and good economics’

At the first meeting of your new 2013 Fayette County Board of Commissioners, we passed a resolution entitled, “Resolution of the Fayette County Commissioners pledge to citizens and the county staff on core values and beliefs.”

The resolution acknowledges we were placed in office by the citizens and that the board is responsible and accountable to those same citizens.

The resolution also pledged transparency, openness, fiscal responsibility, as well as professional and courteous behavior with staff and constituents. Read More»

3 teens do right thing and return lost wallet

While out driving around Peachtree City [April 7] on my golf cart, my purse fell off without my knowing it. It contained my wallet with credit cards and my cell phone.

After I returned home and realized that I had lost my purse, I started to retrace my steps.

As I was pulling out of my driveway, three teenagers on a golf cart stopped.

They had found my purse, checked my ID inside my wallet, and drove out of their way to return it to me.

I failed to get their names, but I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for their honesty and integrity. Read More»

Brown: We should not trust gov’t.

Conflict avoidance is something we should not be teaching our children. Trusting government is also something we should warn our children not to do.

We are at a point where we are forced to engage the public conscience to argue for what we believe in lest we lose it all.

By conflict I do not mean physical struggles or war. Rather, I am referring to ideological argument and public deliberation over how to preserve our liberty and independence as individuals and as a community. Read More»

‘Stop to save 3¢ on Kroger gas cost me $900, or $81 a gallon’

This happened to me recently but it could’ve just as easily happened to you or someone you know. I’m out approximately $900 for 11 gallons of gas (or $81 a gallon) purchased at Kroger.

On Friday afternoon I filled my car up at the Kroger gas station at Crosstown. Within minutes my car ran extremely rough despite no prior issues. My car had 29,000 miles on it, was in excellent condition, garaged and till then never had a problem. Read More»

Keep music in our Fayette schools

To the Fayette County Board of Education: I write as a concerned former Fayette County band student parent, a citizen, and a business owner in Fayette County. I understand you will be voting on a proposal to possibly eliminate fifth-grade band programs and all high school assistant band and orchestra director positions on April 15. I write to voice adamant opposition to what would be a near-sighted approach to fixing budget problems in the school system. Read More»

Remembering the Samses and the Buseys

Mrs. Satterthwaite, please indulge my two cents worth on the history of the Sams and Busey doctors’ service to Fayette County (and Clayton County).

I’m almost 73 years young, and a “refugee” from Clayton for over a dozen years now.

Dr. Busey, Sr. was our family doctor, having assisted my mother at my birth in our home in Jonesboro (house calls were common) in 1940. By the time my brother came along in 1942, Dr. Busey, Sr., had built his clinic in Fayetteville and Mother delivered little brother there. Read More»

A centurion’s perspective of the cross

I am Scipio, a centurion in the Roman army, a veteran of many wars. After all my experience, sacrifices for Rome, and rank in the army, I found myself stationed in Judea, a backward post.

I had much preferred something closer to home in the countryside near Rome. The Jewish population here hates me, or maybe I should say they hate Roman occupation. We are on constant alert to the possibility of riots and threats from Jewish insurrectionists. Read More»

Why we still work to stop Obamacare

[Editor’s note: Marking the 3rd anniversary of Obamacare, which was signed into law March 23, 2010, Reps. Tom Graves (R-GA-14) and Doug Collins (R-GA-9) co-authored an op-ed featured last month in the Pickens County Progress about the Defund Obamacare Act (H.R. 1005) and why they will continue working to stop the law.] Read More»