Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current, June 21, 2023, Image 6

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Fayette County news., June 21, 2023, Image 6

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Newspaper Page TextA6 Fayette County News Wednesday, June 21,2023 Juneteenth, Continued from Front dance on the significance of the day, beginning with its origin. June 19, commonly re ferred to as “Juneteenth,” is the commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War. Known as “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day” for commonalities sake, the origins of the milestone date back to June 19, 1865, when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, a U.S. Army officer and Union General during the Civil War, issued an order in Galveston, Texas, an nouncing that all slaves were free under the Emancipation Proclama tion. According to History.com, about 250,000 black people that were enslaved in Texas were the last in the coun try to hear about the pro clamation, which President Abraham Lin coln had issued more than two years prior, granting freedom to all enslaved people in Confederate states. While the day is filled with hope and restoration for the country, June teenth was not recognized as a federal holiday until 2021, when President Joe Biden signed legislation adding it to the federal holiday calendar after both its name and signifi cance regained attention from the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. See additional im ages at www.fayette- news.net. PTC Boardwalk, Continued from Front closed due to hazard poten tial and excess tree growth that lines the walkway. Ac cording to Peachtree City Mayor Kim Learnard, this project is a “no brainer” yes. “Eve got three things in mind as to why I think this is important to you. The first one is what Justin al luded to already, and that is that as a city, part of our mission statement is to pro vide consistency in munici pal services,” Learnard began. “And that means we take care of what we already have. That’s a priority in our city.” Learnard’s two other reasons included citizen feedback on the priorities and needs within the com munity, including the golf cart path system and green spaces. She noted that cit izens wrote these responses in past comprehensive plans. The third reason is that the council only re ceived one email on the topic of the repairs. “The emailer was in favor of spending the money,” Learnard said, be fore she read the email from a citizen. Learnard expressed that she was ‘Too percent” in favor of approving repairs, while Councilman Mike King said that he believed that the $200,000 price tag would not be well spent on the boardwalk. While King agreed that the trees needed to be removed, he argued that the city should consider rebuilding a structure that may be more cost effective. “We need to remove the existing boardwalk struc ture out of there and replace it with something. I don’t think it needs to go as far as this one did. I’d say it [be] made perhaps 50 feet, put a couple of benches on it, and you have the same thing,” King said. Councilman Phil Prebor agreed with King about the “steep” price tag for the project, stating that the en tire structure will have to be rebuilt at some point, so why not reconstruct it now rather than spending money for the repairs? Councilman Frank De- stadio proposed asking the citizens what they would like to see when it comes to the “shortening” process of the current boardwalk. De- stadio continued to ques tion where the boardwalk would be shortened and which and would be the best side to shorten. Following that question, Destadio also asked what trees were posing the most danger, and that possibly removing the most danger ous ones first and then eval uating the structure itself could be a potential option. Councilman Clint Hol land said he “kind of’ agreed with Destadio, Pre bor, and King, but also said the boardwalk needs to be examined more acutely. He noted there was a creek that the swamp area runs into that could potentially be a location for a different structure. “So maybe, to compro mise on all these issues, maybe we take the board walk out to that area and build a beautiful platform out there where citizens can go out, sit, talk, look at the wildlife there, look at the deer, look at the turtles, look at whatever is the wildlife there,” Holland said. “And without trying to put a whole new, almost 1,100 lin ear feet of new boardwalk and remove all those trees. It doesn’t say it’s going to cut it down to $50,000.” Holland agreed that a sitting area could be nice in the area, with some input from the citizens as well. Holland suggested the city manager continue to survey and evaluate the land and area to propose differ ent options. <2> TSR GROUP Timeshare Relief TIMESHARE RELIEF NOW! Do you want to eliminate the financial burden of your timeshare? We can terminate your ownership and relieve you of your obligation forever! Come join the TSR Group for a brief discussion. Fridayjune 23, 2023 and Saturdayjune 24, 2023 Hilton Peachtree City Atlanta Hotel & Conference Center 2443 Highway 54 West Peachtree City Georgia 30269 10am, 1pm and 4pm SEATING IS LIMITED, FREE TO ATTEND! CALL 833-877-1988 OR GO ONLINE TO TSRGRP.COM Your BONUS for attending! - Trustpilot Private consultation, financial support and payment upon completion available. Not affiliated with Visa Card Services. Restrictions apply* QTS, Continued from Front discussed, specifically run off from the data center into the water table. City staff reminded residents that QTS water discharge will flow into the city sanitary sewer, not into a septic tank. While one resident noted issues with deforesta tion in the area designated for the data center, council members said that QTS has put out an RFP to purchase 7,000 trees to replace the some-6,ooo trees removed for the project. Brown also presented ordinances 0-14-23 and o- 15-23 between Fayetteville and Trilith Development, LLC and Trilith Studios, LLC, respectively. The agreements were last amended on Dec. 15, 2022. Since that time, the city has adopted the 2022 update to the comprehensive plan, adopted a new land use map, repealed several ordi nances within the code of ordinance, appealed the zoning ordinance in its en tirety, adopted a new un ified development ordinance, and adopted the new official zoning map for the city. Brown noted that none of these items will impact the town of Trilith, and no changes have been made to the agreement, but that staff is here “to reaffirm the agreement as written. No amendments have been proposed.” Council unanimously approved the ordinances. In other news: •Council unanimously denied 12-month exten sions to existing licenses for retail package sale of dis tilled spirits for off-premise consumption to Fayetteville Package Inc. (710 West La nier Avenue) and St. Stephen’s Investment Hold ings, LLC (325 South Glynn Street). Brown said the city cur rently has seven active package store licenses asso ciated with new construc tion projects, and the alcohol ordinance requires stores opening within 12 months of receiving ap proval, or the license will be revoked unless an extension is granted by council. Prior to the vote, a rep resentative of both appli cants spoke, providing reasons why development plans have not been sub mitted. •Council unanimously approved a resolution to adopt the 2023 annual Cap ital Improvements Element Update for Fiscal Year 2022. •Council unanimously approved a resolution to recognize Fayetteville as a City of Civility, which City Manager Ray Gibson says has been done by several cities throughout the state, but he noted there is not much “accountability” in the resolution. •A presentation was held in recognition of Mu nicipal Court Clerks Week, as well as recognition of Katie Pace Quattlebaum, who formerly served as ex ecutive director of the Southern Conservation Trust, and recognized city staff Certified Public Man ager program graduates, which include Fire Chief Linda Black, Public Services Director Chris Heineman, Community and Economic Development Director David Rast, and Assistant Director of Finance and Ad ministrative Services Car- leetha Talmadge. Harper, Continued from A4 That’s not a knock on the police, as individuals or as departments. That’s the stone-cold reality we’re in, especially in more urban areas. We are at a point where we simply have more crime than we have police officers’ time. This problem has esca lated over the past decade as national scrutiny of the bad actions of some officers have become a national got cha campaign where law enforcement officers are too often presumed guilty by media until proven inno cent. Add to this the “de fund the police” movement, and you end up with some departments with critically low morale and an almost inability to retain and re cruit officers. It’s difficult to get accu rate staffing counts from many police departments. Some mayors are fond of playing “hide the football” here, where they will re lease numbers of positions, but don’t like to indicate how many of those posi tions are filled, nor how many of those officers are available for calls at any given time. Not filling open posi tions is a way to plug budget gaps elsewhere in munici pal budgets. Politicians at every level are reluctant to raise taxes to keep officer salaries sufficient to retain and recruit in an inflation ary environment. This incident also illus trates another problem we have when we ignore the “petty” crimes because lim ited police resources are consumed by investigating more serious incidents. We’re living in a time when many of the non-vio lent crimes like the epi demic of shoplifting at retail stores is executed by organ ized crime rings. Stopping criminals who are commit ting the more minor thefts will help take those partici pating in the larger criminal enterprises off the streets as well. For all of this to work, however, we need enough police officers on the beat for each to do the initial re sponse work carefully and thoroughly. That requires sufficient funding, as well as a public commitment to stand behind those willing to don a uniform and take an oath to protect, and to serve. Bernard, Continued from A4 been plotting for weeks to replace our national govern ment. Subsequently, there have been hundreds of ex tremists arrested... and con victed by juries of American citizens. These convictions were a result of their direct actions - not their thoughts or views. For example, last month Robert Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, was con victed and sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment for sedition. In other words, at tempting a coup against our constitutionally elected democratic government. It should be noted that, despite the clear and incon trovertible legal findings, Rhodes has incorrectly de clared himself a “political prisoner.” Along those same lines, American Patriot’s also inaccurate, fiery rheto ric describes those incarcer ated as “political prisoners” in “the D.C. Gulag.” Here's the bottom line. The extremist right-wing propaganda spewed by these newsletters is hurting America. The American Pa triot is anything but pa triotic. And that is true of similar extremist online publications. It’s up to conservative political and thought leaders to take a courageous stand against them, as VP Pence took a stand against Trump and authoritarian ism on Jan. 6, 2021, know ing it might end his political career. If not, our national divisiveness will only get worse, in a worst-case sce nario leading to the possible deterioration of our democ racy. Find relief from: TRUFFLES VEIN SPECIALISTS • Varicose Veins • Spider Veins • Leg Swelling • Tired, Achy Legs • Heaviness or Fatigue • Restless Legs at Night • Itching, burning legs • Leg ulcers 90% of treatments covered by insurance! 874 W Lanier Ave 678-833-1444 .^F-ayetteville^GA 30214 trufflesveinspecialists.com FAYETTE COUNTY NEWS P.0. Box 96, Fayetteville, Ga. 30214 ■ Phone: 770-461-6317 Fax: 770-460-8172 ■ fayette-news.net Award-winning member of the Georgia Press Association and the National Newspaper association.