August 9, 2007 Letters to the Editor

An Open letter to Mr. Dennis FitzGerald:

Sir, I believe you have stepped out on a limb which has the potential to be sawed off between you and the trunk. Based on your letter in the August 2 issue of the Roswell Beacon, you state, “If Mayor Wood gets his way, Dorvee, Barnett (please spell my name correctly) and Peoples will sit on the Council and the Roswell we know and love will come to an end.” You further state that we would sign in a death-by-density warrant for the people of Roswell who will be pushed out to make way for Wood’s high towers. Mr. FitzGerald, your statement is an outright fabrication.

I believe you and I sat next to each other at the Beacon’s Candidate Forum and I guess you are deaf or not paying attention. I went on the record stating that the Roswell East “proposed” project would not fly in Roswell. That its density was too great and the buildings were too high. But, I did go one step further – I also said that Roswell East was not even in the pipeline yet and that until the project was finalized and submitted for consideration we had an issue that was manufactured by the mayor and the developer. So, your letter is factually incorrect.

I have no intention of speaking for Mr. Dorvee or Mr. Peoples. But, I was listening (you should try it) when Mr. Dorvee and Mr. Peoples also stated that they would not support Roswell East as proposed. Running for office is as much about listening as it is about speaking. You have spoken out of turn and in an incorrect manner. I am a believer in intellectual honesty and I believe the people of Roswell are as well. So far you have shown no intellectual honesty. Only that you are another person who is willing to do anything and say anything to be elected.

But, your letter goes deeper than just the fact that you are truly a one-issue candidate as you stated at the Candidate Forum. What you have done is exactly what many in Roswell have criticized the mayor for doing. You have said if someone does not agree with you, then they are the problem. I have read articles by David Tolleson, Kent Iglehart and Lori Henry in the Beacon which state this is the problem the mayor brings to our government. Are you not more of the same?

Roswell is at a fork in the road. We can take one road and continue to ignore the fact that the city has a population that has grown to more than 90,000 or we can begin to look out 20, 30 or 40 years down the road and work to continue to make Roswell one of the greatest places to live. I fear that you can only look to the next issue and have no vision of the future.

We must look to the future and what is in the best interest of Roswell as a whole. If it is not in the best interest of all of Roswell, then we must prevent it from occurring. That is what I will fight for. I have lived in Roswell for over 40 years and I am not interested in leaving. It is this passion for Roswell that causes me to seek a seat on City Council.

If the Roswell East project had never come up I do not believe Mr. FitzGerald would have gotten involved. So, in my mind he is truly a one issue candidate who now seeks to find other planks to form a platform. His interest is only in the present and not the long term future of Roswell.

I attempted to contact Mr. FitzGerald by phone upon reading his letter. Yep, you got it. Unlisted phone number. Mr. FitzGerald, if you are elected you would be the first elected official in Roswell history to have an unpublished phone number. To my constituents, you can always find my number in the book. In addition, I will provide you my cell number today (678) 898-5487 and my email address is phil.barnet@imoutdoors.com. Call me anytime you want to know where I stand. You do not have to depend on Mr. FitzGerald.

We need common sense solutions to difficult issues which face our city today and into the future. We need to address all issues in the best interest of Roswell. Lastly we need to deal with these issues in an honest and forthright manner. Mr. FitzGerald, your letter proves that you are not the man that I thought you were and if you choose to continue to be intellectually dishonest the voters will finish sawing off that branch you have stepped out on to.

Phil Barnet
Candidate for Roswell City Council

The Roswell Beacon published an erroneous article on Martin’s Landing in its Aug. 2 edition. MLF had not taken any public stand on the Charlie Brown project because Tuck Tucker, leader of the opposition and former ML resident, asked us not to do so prior to the city staff delivering its report to Council. The report was delivered on July 19. President Nelms sent an e-mail to all directors prior to the July 24th board meeting opposing the “proposed CRB [Realty] development as too large and dense for Roswell.” It also included nine points that are MLF’s desires for redevelopment in the area. This same document was also passed out at the meeting. The first sentence was read as a motion by Gay Maloney and added to by other board members to make it more specific to the development as reported on by staff. This motion was seconded and passed unanimously without discussion since discussion had taken place at several prior meetings. There were numerous other technical errors with this article. For example, while the vote was unanimous, it was not 22-0 and the person that made the motion was Gay Maloney, not Gay Mahoney.

Not only were the facts inaccurate, but the whole tone of the article paints a picture of Martins Landing as a war zone with references to Panzer tanks and blitzkrieg. I live in Martins Landing and have attended board meetings, committee meetings and social events here and have never seen MLF as you describe us. Are we a large community? Yes. Do we have differences of opinion? Yes. Have we been able to function as a community for over 35 years? Yes!!!

Good journalists would double-check the facts before reporting an inaccurate news story about a MLF Board meeting.

Christy Taylor

Having read your publication from front to back, and having returned to the cool inside after cutting my front lawn for fear the yard enforcement person might measure the length of my weeds, I have decided to hunt-and-peck a letter to the editor. Mr. McElrath's cover story really got me to thinking just how much control of our lives we are handing over to various levels of government, federal, state, and local. As a citizen, I found the various actions taken by the city against the car dealership somewhat dubious, and more than likely totally unnecessary. Then it seems to have turned into a vendetta of sorts. As a veteran I found that I was offended by the city's action. I'm quite sure that it was not the intention of the officials involved to offend anyone, however it seemed to play out that way. Elected officials and government employees should keep in mind that they work for the people. Before I get taken to task for that statement, let me say I was a government employee for some 16 years, so I have walked both sides of the street.

I am a person in the eighth decade of my life, five decades being spent in Roswell at one location. I have reached the conclusion that we have allowed government to intrude too far into our lives when we allow them (either elected or employed bureaucrats) to determine the length of our grass or weeds. What next, ordinances specifying the types of grasses or weeds, the make or model of lawnmowers, perhaps the kinds of shrubbery we can plant?

I believe that I, and my generation, lived in the best of times. Perhaps every generation thinks that way, but today I fail to see statesmen or stateswomen in government. Instead, I see people there driven by the need to be re-elected, the need to be popular, the need for personal power. I see very few there that seem to hold with principles and values so eloquently laid out by the republic's founders and to have the protection and general welfare of the people uppermost in their mind. Citizens must strive to regain the control they have so carelessly discarded, the government should be the servant of the people, not visa-versa. I fear that we may have already traveled too far down the road of government dependency.

Thanks for allowing me to express my frustrations.
 
Gene Rhodes

[Recently] I was asked to bring my youth triathlon club to participate in an MS150 training ride. The MS150 Ride is a charity ride that happens all over the nation to raise funds for fighting Multiple Sclerosis. People ride their bikes 150 miles over two days to raise funds. To prepare, they participate in training rides and Roswell Bicycles hosted one such ride [on a recent] Sunday starting at 9 a.m. My wife, two sons and I all rode the 30-mile option. It was a pleasant ride until we turned toward Alpharetta as we looped back to Roswell. We had cars on their way home from church yelling "get off the road" and one lady in a minivan was honking at us and another van threw something at us. One car narrowly missed one of the leaders who works at Roswell Bicycles, and who is 15 years old! Now, my sons are experienced riders, but are 13 and 11 years old and the aggressiveness of people with their cars is downright frightful. I can only imagine that they must be damn Yankees! I can't imagine that their business or travels are so important that they can't wait 10 seconds to one minute to safely share the road with a cyclist that has had rights to the road longer than cars have. What would they say if they caused an accident with one of the young riders! We had many near accidents as cars tried to pass us on a blind curve and over a hill where you couldn't see the other side and an oncoming car was traveling in the opposite direction and nearly hit the passing car and us!

All those transplanted Yankees living in Alpharetta should be deported back north so our way of southern hospitality can be restored without another fight, this time on the road. At least in Roswell the locals know the mayor may be one of those cyclists and most times take care and are courteous to cyclists.
 
Eric Broadwell
President of Bike Roswell

[The letter below is in reference to the concern expressed in her letter to City Council regarding the possible hoarding of cats by an area resident (“Residents Angered by Inconsistent Code Enforcement,” Aug. 2, 2007.]

This is not confirmed and it was only addressed to me by another homeowner several months ago. A contractor had visited the home and he also did some work at another Park Bridge resident's house. He mentioned this concern to the homeowner who then contacted me. I told this homeowner to contact the city, but I'm not aware if the city was contacted.

Denise Detamore
Park Bridge HOA

I read Dennis FitzGerald’s long-winded diatribe with concern and then resigned acceptance. He has demonstrated he is irresponsible with the facts and not likely to work well with other Council members – two things Roswell does not need. How does Mr. FitzGerald arrive at his conclusion about how I might vote, or that I even know or speak to the other candidates or the mayor? His pledge to not change any zoning laws is naive and unrealistic – every Council since day one has changed zoning to reflect changing needs. Lori Henry and Paula Winiski authored drastic changes by creating a new mixed-use ordinance – a positive change that has allowed balanced development to move forward in Roswell. Roswell needs Council members who realize this, not dogmatic grandstanders. As for how I might vote, I refer Mr. FitzGerald to my press release issued April 25: “my goal is to represent all of Roswell, not just any particular group; I hope to create a positive environment for achieving redevelopment that produces win – win results for Roswell and its citizens; Roswell has a right to set high standards and I will not rubber stamp every proposal put forward.”

Bruce Peoples
Candidate for Roswell City Council