Another Reason or Two NOT to Vote for Maxwell and Smith

Have you seen those HUGE new double sided, changing billboards in Fayetteville? You can thank Eric Maxwell and Jack Smith along with their cohorts Herb Frady and Robert Horgan.

Previous County Commissions had been highly successful in staving off the sign companies wanting to mar the beauty of the county with these monstrous signs. As long as we held firm the billboard companies couldn’t get a foothold.

One of the first things Maxwell did was dump the long-standing county attorney who’d been successful in winning any challenges to our long-standing barring of additional signs. One of the second things he spearheaded was to replace the old attorney with his buddy who represented the billboard sign companies. Yep, the guy who was working hard to make sure we got stuck with these skyline ruining monster signs.

Maxwell initially got involved in the County Commission race partially due to wanting unlimited signs on properties.

Jack Smith didn’t have a problem in the world supporting Maxwell in this pristine-county-ruining effort.

Need a few more reasons?

The West Fayetteville “Bypass”, which isn’t really a bypass and doesn’t do a thing to mitigate traffic woes. Where’s the traffic build up in our county? Peachtree City and Fayetteville, right? So what’s a road in the middle of the two cities that takes minimal traffic on one end to a place no one needs to go supposed to do to help?

It doesn’t help EXCEPT on the tiny part that was marked as a priority as a result of past traffic studies. What, you say, a previous traffic study? But Eric Maxwell claimed that his Board did the first traffic study, that there wasn’t a previous study. Have you noticed how much longer Mr. Maxwell’s nose gets during elections (ya’ll remember Pinocchio and his poor nose)?

But, but, sputter, Jack Smith and Eric Maxwell said they HAD to put in the Bypass because the taxpayers wanted it and voted for it and it was on the SPLOST list and you can’t divert money from one project to another and you can’t stop it now and waste all that money, and, and…

1. The taxpayers voted for a long, long list of projects.
2. The so-called West Fayetteville Bypass was way down on the list of priorities.
3. There are other projects on that same SPLOST list they refer to that they chose NOT to do.
4. They STOPPED work on the EAST Fayetteville By-pass which WOULD have helped traffic, wasting umpteen hundred thousand dollars, and MOVED their bypass UP on the list of priorities. One has to wonder why.
5. The current Commission changed the route of the Bypass, taking it through (and destroying) numerous residential areas. They took property and split properties. Then, when one elderly lady complained because her well would be across the Bypass, Maxwell snidely told her at a public meeting to be sure not to get hit when she crossed the street.
6. You can divert money from one project to another if they’re listed in the voter approved SPLOST list. Also, they CAN divert money from a county project to a city project as long as the City Council AND the County Commission agree. Another fallacy Maxwell spouted at a campaign debate.

The list of reasons to bump the incumbents is long. Special interest favoritism, ethics problems (dope smoking, bringing things up for votes that aren’t on the public agenda, holding at least one illegal meeting and then trying to cover it up by lying about it, etc.), trying to slide in a new county-owned industrial park (that’s Jack Smith’s pet project, despite the fact that we have loads of vacant buildings clamoring for tenants in our many industrial parks), oh, the list is too long and time is too short. Today you vote.

There are only two choices in each County Commission race. Steve Brown is challenging Jack Smith and Allen McCarty is challenging Eric Maxwell. You may not know or even care for any of your choices. If you can’t vote for one or both of the challengers, consider skipping voting in either or both elections. You don’t have to check a box; your entire ballot will still be counted and valid. In fact, you can write someone in if you don’t like your choices. A write in won’t count, but at least you’ll be making your displeasure with the current batch known.

Go vote. Today. Please know that just as soon as the economy starts to improve, the current commissioners have plans for YOUR county. It ain’t gonna be pretty folks.