It Passed Us to the South

Sun   7 Jan 2007   18:23 by Kevin McGehee 66° and light rain in Coweta County, GA 1 comment [Coweta County] [Nature] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

The warning was extended to 7:30 but the center of suspected rotation has already crossed over into Fayette County to threaten Peachtree City. We got some heavy rain for a few minutes but that’s all. There are reports of wind damage, possibly tornado-caused, in the southern part of Coweta County along Old Corinth Road. Two tornadoes in the first week of January? Update, Monday morning: At least 100 trees had been toppled by the storm’s lashing. They landed on rooftops, windshields, street signs. In a four-hour span, fire crews in the county responded to almost two dozen reports of trapped residents in this neighborhood, about five miles southwest of Newnan. And when they got there, they found themselves tending to several others trapped in their houses because of fallen trees. They hadn’t been able to call for help because their phone lines were down. Firefighters rescued a teenager who was trapped in a closet after a roof collapse at a house on Corinth Road, said Coweta County Fire Deputy Chief Jay Jones. The 14-year-old had sought shelter from the storm in the closet with other family members. But while others made it out okay, debris from a tree that fell on the roof of the house made it impossible for the teenager to get out, Jones said. The teen was rescued but did not need hospitalization, officials said. Shortly before 10 p.m., rescue workers were dispatched to a house on Joe Brown Road where about 30 children attending a birthday party were trapped inside because of downed trees. Jones said the house was at the end of a cul-de-sac and fallen trees were blocking the road in front of it. The National Weather Service in Peachtree City said that a possible tornado is to blame for the damage in Coweta County, the second in the county in two days. » AJC:   Trapped kids, teen rescued in Coweta County I think next January Wifey-Ki-Yay and I may be taking a trip during the first week…

Coweta County Tornado Warning
Sun   7 Jan 2007   17:49 by Kevin McGehee 67° and light rain in Coweta County, GA 2 comments [Coweta County] [Nature] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]	...until about 7:00 according to the issuance from NWS. May be in the area of Yippee-Ki-Yay! World Headquarters later than that. According to Atlanta TV stations’ radar it is almost to Newnan and moving this way. I’ll update after the storm has passed.

Well, Hm.

Thu   28 Dec 2006   8:57 by Kevin McGehee 34° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 10 comments [Coweta County] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

I’ve been in the habit, following local custom, of referring to the county in which I live by its name, sans the identifying suffix of “County.“ Well, except in the name of the category, “Coweta County.“ And it just now occurred to me to check whether this might serve to confuse readers who are unfamiliar with the fact I live in Georgia. Turns out, unwary readers might even mistakenly conclude that I live in Oklahoma. So, I guess I’m going to have to break with local custom from here on out. Update: Okay, maybe not so confusing. I just went back to add “County” to some of the more recent old posts that mention Coweta, and found that I haven’t tended to follow local custom as closely as I thought. Editor’s Note: Any category mentioned in any entry on this site may be defunct by the time you read it.

They Can’t Say They Haven’t Been Warned

Sun   22 Oct 2006   17:32 by Kevin McGehee 67° and partly cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Here's Your Sign] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

I’ve just fired off a letter to the Newnan Times-Herald: This evening I was leaving the Kroger shopping center at Thomas Crossroads, planning as usual to make a right turn onto 154 from the driveway that runs behind the Flash Foods gas station. And once again I found my way blocked by a driver trying to make a left turn from the right lane. For those who are unfamiliar with the driveway in question, it was designed with one entrance lane and two exit lanes—one for right turns, and one for left turns. In a colossal act of unimaginative conformity, the right lane was meant for right turns, while the left lane was meant for left turns, just like everywhere else in the world. I don’t know what it is about this particular driveway that attracts the free spirits who want to march to the beat of their own drummer (while driving new-ish imported sedans, perhaps to fit in with the local yuppies), but I’ve never encountered this phenomenon with such regularity anywhere else. Maybe the problem is that the striping on this driveway hasn’t been refreshed since the new Flash Foods gas station was built a few years ago. Whoever’s responsible for it needs to lay down fresh striping so that even radical nonconformists who believe it’s their sacred right to use the right-turn lane to turn left, will see that their anarchistic tendencies will have to be suppressed. The sooner the better. My truck is four-wheel-drive, and each time this happens I have to fight a little harder not to shift into four-wheel and just drive over these hippies in disguise.

That’s Why It Isn’t Considered an ‘In Play’ District

Fri   13 Oct 2006   14:54 by Kevin McGehee 62° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Get Offa My Lawn!] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

My congressman, Lynn Westmoreland (once reviled in the blogosphere for voting against a Katrina relief bill because he wasn’t satisfied with its safeguards), is opposed in his first effort at re-election by Democrat Mike McGraw. The two candidates had a debate last night, during which McGraw brought up a Westmoreland vote on a Voting Rights Act renewal bill—Westmoreland wanted to make a change reflecting the fact conditions and racial issues in the South today are different than they were when the VRA was first enacted. But McGraw didn’t make a whole lot out of that, according to today’s Times-Herald. Instead, he wondered aloud why the Voting Rights Act was even at issue. Westmoreland informed him (and, I suspect, a great many people in the audience, including probably more than one newspaper reporter) that portions of the VRA are not permanent, and if not renewed would expire. Mike McGraw: a typical uninformed Democrat candidate for Congress in 2006. Vote Republican. Somebody Has to Cancel Out All the Stupid People’s Votes.

Sgt Mike Stokely Memorial Highway Dedicated

Fri   6 Oct 2006   19:29 by Kevin McGehee 69° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 2 comments [Coweta County] [Yee-haw!] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

We arrived a few minutes after the scheduled start time, but we not only found seats, we were barely in them when things got started, even though other people were still filtering in several minutes after things got underway. Nobody actually knew we were going, yet somehow it seemed they weren’t going to start it without us, and once we were seated they weren’t going to keep us waiting. The dedication ceremony for a stretch of State Highway 54 in eastern Coweta County was held at Trinity Fellowship Church, in the sanctuary, near the junction of 54 with Highway 34. The room was filled up when we arrived, with a lot of people standing along the sides—only on second look did it become clear these were members of the Patriot Guard Riders, most holding U.S. flags which they raised up high for the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner,“ for the Pledge of Allegiance, and at the end for “America the Beautiful.“ I expect there will be pictures from today’s ceremony eventually displayed here. Also prominent in attendance were, of course, members of Sgt. Stokely’s 108th Cavalry in BDUs. And seated on the dais were three friends of Stokely’s, two of them also sergeants in uniform; his former First Sergeant from Iraq; State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R); and U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R). A justice from the state Supreme Court gave closing remarks. And there was a video tribute to Sgt. Stokely, produced by his sister, with Toby Keith’s “American Soldier” accompanying a slideshow of her brother in and out of uniform. In listening to the song, I fought back tears. And I can’t call in sick on Monday when the weekend’s been too strong, I just work straight through the holidays, And sometimes all night long. You can bet that I stand ready when the wolf growls at the door, Hey, I’m solid, hey I’m steady, hey I’m true down to the core, And I will always do my duty, no matter what the price, I’ve counted up the cost, I know the sacrifice, Oh, and I don’t want to die for you, But if dying’s asked of me, I’ll bear that cross with honor, ‘Cause freedom don’t come free. Rep. Westmoreland gave Stokely’s brother, sister and wife mementoes—a flag that was raised over the U.S. Capitol in Mike’s name, a copy of Westmoreland’s speech about him on the House floor, and so on—and Sen. Seabaugh gave copies of his Senate resolution designating the stretch of highway. As some of you may know from reading here in the past, Mike’s father is Robert Stokely, state court solicitor for Coweta County. Robert and I had differences once upon a time, but that grudge suddenly looked silly when I saw the headline in the Times-Herald that his son had been killed in Iraq. I’d never met Mike, but he put his life on the line for people like me. And while there certainly are those who would treat such a sacrifice with contempt, I’m not one of them. UPDATE, 14 October: Here is AJC coverage. Times-Herald coverage is here.

Peachtree City Co-Founder Floy Farr

Sat   30 Sep 2006   10:27 by Kevin McGehee 55° and fair in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Chris and I met Floy Farr one night while listening to her co-worker’s blues band at Starbucks in Peachtree City. He and a female friend of his happened to sit down at the table where Chris and I were seated, and I overheard the lady address him as “Floy.“ Since I already knew of Farr from what I’d picked up of the history of Peachtree City and the Coweta-Fayette EMC where I’d worked for some months after we moved to Georgia—and because State Route 54 through Peachtree City is named for him—I recognized the name and Chris and I spent that evening hearing from Farr and his friend about the early days of PTC. Floy Farr never tired of telling the story of how Peachtree City began some 50 years ago, with two strangers walking into a country bank. Earl Denny and Golden Pickett, a couple of guys from College Park who worked out of a tent on a vacant lot, met with Farr at the Redwine Brothers bank in Tyrone, which Farr managed. Sheepishly, they told Farr they were looking for 15,000 acres to buy in Fayette County. “What you gonna do with 15,000 acres?“ Farr asked, amused. After some hesitation, Denny said, “build a city.“ What happened next says a lot about what Farr was like as a businessman and a person. The 94-year-old lifelong Fayette resident died Friday morning at his home in Peachtree City, apparently of heart failure. Instead of shutting the door on the two men, Farr directed them to Fayette’s biggest landowner, Bob Huddleston. That led to more meetings and the involvement of Pete Knox, from east Georgia, a maker of prefab homes. Knox’s son roomed at Georgia Tech with Joel Cowan, who went on to marshal Peachtree City’s early growth. Farr’s talent for spying opportunity and connecting with people helped make Peachtree City and Fayette County among the most desirable places to work and live in metro Atlanta. » AJC: Fayette County mourns lifelong visionary Farr Based on his age at his passing, he was 89 or 90 when I met him.

Remembering a Local Hero

Wed   20 Sep 2006   22:22 by Kevin McGehee 55° and fair in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [War] [Coweta County] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Coweta County commissioners voted some time ago to dedicate a stretch of State Route 54 in Coweta County to SGT Michael Stokely, who was killed in Iraq in August 2005. The dedication will take place Friday October 6 with a church service at Trinity Fellowship in Sharpsburg at 4:00 p.m., with a cookout reception to follow. Signs designating the SGT Michael Stokely Highway are already up but have yet to be unveiled.

Six Degrees of Stan Thomas

Fri   15 Sep 2006   9:11 by Kevin McGehee 56° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 1 comment [Coweta County] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

In a disastrous dinner meeting Sept. 5, a preliminary plan for the arena presented to the Maloofs failed to include several key provisions the brothers said they were counting on, said Suheil Totah, project manager for Thomas Enterprises, which is negotiating to buy the railyard from Union Pacific. [...] Totah acknowledged Thursday that the “plan did not reflect the deal” and said his firm would go back to the drawing board and redesign the planned sports and entertainment zone to address the Maloofs’ concerns. “There was a lot of miscommunication,“ Totah said. “We’re committed to making this right, to move forward and resolve all the issues.“ Atlanta-based Thomas Enterprises is scheduled to meet with the city and county of Sacramento today, along with the architecture firm Ellerbee Becket, which designed several arenas used as models by the Maloofs, including FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn. » Bee: Proposal ‘blindsided’ Maloofs I used to live in Sacramento—and longtime readers will recall that I’ve pooh-poohed the effort to put a new arena for the Kings in downtown Sacramento. The Maloofs, of course, now own the Sacramento Kings. Thomas Enterprises is based in Atlanta—and owns the land on which Newnan’s latest comemrcial development boom is taking place. In fact, last Monday Wifey-Ki-Yay and I attended a club meeting at which one of those in attendance remarked (I don’t recall the exact context), “I knew Stan Thomas when he was broke.“ I know that’s not really how “Six Degrees” is played…

First Palmetto, Now ‘McIntosh’

Mon   11 Sep 2006   9:32 by Kevin McGehee 64° and fog in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Ready or not, here it comes. When it is completed in 10 to 15 years, the McIntosh mixed-use project planned for east Coweta County would add nearly 44,000 vehicle trips a day to local roads, according to estimates by the traffic planning company Street Smarts. Developer Tom Reese, Coweta representatives, Street Smarts and others met with the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority last week to discuss the traffic implications of Reese’s big project, called McIntosh. GRTA and the Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center are reviewing the plans because McIntosh, located next to Peachtree City, would affect a wide area. » AJC: Agencies study traffic flow for McIntosh site How wide an area, you ask? “Has anyone thought of widening 154?“ asked Gene Baumgaertner of Street Smarts. “This changes the whole complexion of that roadway.“ Many future McIntosh residents might travel west to catch Ga. 154 near Sharpsburg because that leads to I-85. Right past Yippee-Ki-Yay! World Headquarters to I-85. As I’ve stated before, Highway 154 is a winding two-lane road as it runs past here, and our access to the rest of the world is a slightly off-perpendicular two-lane road with a stop sign, offset by about 50 feet from a subdivision entrance on the other side of the highway. From what I’ve seen of highway construction around here I’m pretty sure a four-laned 154 would not include a left-turn cut for our road unless they realign it to meet up with the other subdivision. Since they’ll have to demolish houses to do the widening anyway, that may be in the plan. We’re far enough away from the highway that our immediate neighborhood won’t be directly affected—but getting in and out of here during the project would be a bear. And having a four-lane highway just on the other side of the horse pasture behind us will utterly change the character of the neighborhood. From 2000 to 2004, Coweta’s population grew 18 percent, making it one of the 100 fastest-growing counties in the country. About 110,000 people live in Coweta. Its population density, however, remains the lowest among 13 metro Atlanta counties, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission. That means there’s plenty of room for more growth. <shudder>

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