A6 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.
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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.
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FAYETTE COUNTY NEWS
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Fax: 770-460-8172 ■ fayette-news.net
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