Enough is enough - no grocery store needed next to Athens Academy

Why would we want a grocery store in the midst of the busiest traffic thoroughfare in Oconee County? This is what you get when the more narrow minded members of the Oconee County Planning Commission continues to drive our economic engine into the ground. Sure the zoning and planning may actually conform to the prospect of such a project, but for once does the neighborhood have anything to say about what stores get rammed down their throats? Bruce MacPherson, Bill Yarborough and George Rodrigues are the three members of the Planning Commission who vote with some regularity against moronic development in our community, and kudos to them for doing that. Someone trying to win an insurmountable write in campaign might consider such populist issues to propel their campaign,

For those who do not know the background, there are plans afoot to build a grocery store shopping center somewhere near LaVista Road and Highway 441 here in Oconee County. This is near both the campus of Athens Academy and the small strip of mailing address area where residents of Oconee County get their bills with Athens on them. It also might be the wealthiest several hundred acres of residents property with Crystal Hills nearby and across the street from the private school my son attends. I drive almost daily on LaVista and it is already difficult enough to traverse if there is one car backing out of a driveway, yet alone three cars coming out of Chaddwyck.

This is also the area of both the headquarters and the actual residence of Congressman Dr. Paul Broun, Jr. ~ and even though this is out of his "normal" topics such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish or Medical Marijuana, ~ I would imagine that Broun already waits long enough to get out his driveway and onto Highway 441 when Athens Academy lets in and out at several times a day.

I think the Academy is entertaining my father's old HS and site of my Remember the Titans cameo in Druid Hills Friday night in a pre-season scrimmage. The North Oconee - Oconee County tilt will undoubtedly see a huge turnout of Bobby Saxon supporters up the road whether it is at the Titans or Warriors stadium. I will probably go see Bobby Thursday evening at the Oglethorpe County office opening in Crawford. If you are not going to see some football Friday, you can come watch my son play soccer at the halftime of the first UGA women's game about 7:30 pm against the Mercer Lady Bears on Milledge Avenue. Man think how long a drive that would be from Oconee County down Whitehall/Simonton Bridge Road if the NBAF construction was going on.