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Forest Hill Road - return to Homepage

  - Forest Hill Road -
Treachery at  Ga DOT  9-17-07


Macon, Ga

SOS forest




Peake_Allen2007s.jpgAllen Peake responds to our concerns at bottom of this page.  

"Et Tu Butus?" - Julius Caesar
(click above for a  collage of audience and citizen speaker - Barbara Altman. )

    Requests for safer road designs at Forest Hill Road (FHR) dominated the discussion at the community meeting with the Bibb Commissioners at the Museum of Arts and Sciences on September 10, 2007 (review here return to: Meeting Notes)

This is where and when - Georgia State Representative - Allen Peake said this: 

"I plan to meet in a few days with GDOT leaders" -
Peake said he would try to get us (FHR Neighbors) a few more years of time before construction to allow a re-evaulation of the design concept, needs and purpose.

Allen Peake was awarded our "Hero Leader Award" for the evening... BUT, after we learned of his true actions at the Ga DOT,  that award is hereby  rescinded, and Allen now earns our "Benedict Arnold Award" for  Misleading Treachery! 





 
From: Caution Macon (lm)
Sent: 9-28-07
Subject: Friends of Forest Hill Road- re: Rep. Allen Peake and Senator Staton

Residents and friends of Forest Hill Road,

 

It is with a sad and heavy heart, but with an incredibly angry mind, that I feel compelled to write this. The battle between my heart and my mind has been raging for almost two weeks. One of the shrewdest and most savvy politicians I’ve ever known, and a former state legislator once told me, “You can get more flies with honey than you can with vinegar”! That would be the argument my mind has been making. Anne Frank said in her diary, “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart”! That would be the argument my heart has been making.

 

I’ve decided, “You can fool me once, shame on me”, but I will try not to let you, “Fool me twice and shame on me”!

 

I don't want to burn any bridges with my comments, but I’m still pretty angry about this whole sorry episode. Here are the facts as I know them:

 

Three weeks ago, as did many of you, I attended Charlie Bishop’s “listening” forum at the Museum of Arts and Sciences:
 (http://www.macon-bibb.com/FHR/FHR_Meeting20070910.htm)

I sat behind State Representative Allen Peake, who represents District 137 which includes FHR. I had all I could take of County Commission Chair Charlie Bishop's lack of knowledge and misrepresentations about the FHR project. I started to leave and Rep. Peake stopped me with a request to “please don’t leave yet, I have something to say and I want you to hear it.” He went on to publicly state that he and Senator Cecil Staton were going to Atlanta the next Monday to visit Harold Linnenkohl and “take the concerns of the FHR neighborhood to GaDOT.” In a conversation after the meeting, in four or five e-mail conversations, and one phone conversation before the trip, he mentioned over and over that he and Senator Staton were going and also that Larry Walker, the Georgia State Transportation board member for our district was going and would meet them there. He indicated that he planned to ask DOT to put the project on hold for five years until the city and county could study the impact of new demographics occurring within the county and he said he would ask for the moratorium and “only intersection improvements and resurfacing.” All of these requests were agreeable to the neighborhood and residents. In fairness, he said, “He could make no promises”, but he didn’t indicate he was taking all the "opposition"!!

 

That unfortunately is not what happened and this is what we know:

 

From conversations with someone whom I know that is intimately connected with GaDOT, from written records that we have obtained under an Open Records Request from GaDOT, and by extrapolating from information that we have not been able to obtain because there were no minutes taken at the meeting, either by written record, or audio, and by information that was received, but portions “blacked out” (see attached) we can only conclude that because of the people “invited” and present at the meeting, and the lack of a written record, Rep. Peake never intended to “take the concerns of the neighborhood” to GaDOT, and in fact, misrepresented to me personally, and to others, his intentions to do so.

 

From what is shown in the “blacked out” document received from GaDOT, these people were present at the meeting and “signed in”: Charlie Bishop, County Commission Chairman;  Elmo Richardson, County Commissioner who represents the FHR county district; Ken Sheets, the county engineer, Dallas “Van” Etheridge, Moreland-Altobelli (I’ve never known him to be called anything but Van!), and Steve Layson, the county’s Chief Administration Officer.

RICO


The other names were “blacked out”, but one would have to assume that Rep. Peake and Rep. Staton were there!! Wouldn’t one.......? Charlie Bishop said at the county commissioners’ meeting the night after the Atlanta meeting that County Commission District II representative and County Vice-Chairman, Bert Bivins, was also present. I think that begs an important question as to why no one from the FHR neighborhood was invited to go, or why Commisioner Joe Allen, the remaining county commissioner and a supporter of a rational design for FHR was not invited, and more importantly, why no one from the city was invited?

 

My reliable DOT source, who although not present at the meeting, said the scuttlebutt around the agency, was that the delegation from Macon emphatically asked Commissioner Linnekohl to continue with the project as proposed.

 

I will not tell you how to feel about Rep. Allen Peake’s or Senator Cecil Staton’s actions, but I will tell you it has been a long time since I have felt so misled and misrepresented. To have invited all the avowed "opposition" and none of the supporters for a reasonable solution to the FHR dilemma is just unconscionable.

 

Attached is a copy of the “blacked out” sign in sheet. Incredible, is it not? I only have the power of one vote, but I can assure you, Rep. Peake and Senator Staton, who represent my district, will not get my vote. Again, in all fairness, I never spoke to Senator Staton, but I can’t believe in my wildest imagination that he wasn’t complicit in this whole sorry duplicitous arrangement.

 

One can only wonder what their motive really was. Certainly it was not their publicly stated one. I will pray for these two politicians.

  

CAUTION Macon, et. al.
(lm)
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  Margaret Mead (1901 - 1978)


Ga DOT continues to withhold information from affected Citizens:
Self serving sycophants


To: "Perry, Brigetta" <BrigettaBritt.Perry@dot.state.ga.us>  9-27-07 and resent on 10-10-07 after no response...
From: Holliday Dental <teeth@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Open Records Request Middle Georgia

Ms Perry,

Thank you for your quick response to my Open Records Request.

The attached Visitors Monitoring Log is partially blacked-out.  May I please see a copy that has not been modified? 

Please provide the names of GDOT staff who were present, and the name(s) of those who advised you that no written nor audio records were made of the meeting.

It is apparent that all the names are "signed in" with identical handwriting.  Who at GDOT can explain for us how this was done? 
 
Thank-you,
- Lindsay D Holliday


At 12:21 PM 9/27/2007, you wrote:

Dear Dr. Holliday,

I am in receipt of your Open Records Request dated September 26, 2007.  You have requested certain information regarding the meeting that took place on September 17, 2007, regarding road projects in Middle Georgia.

·       In item number (1) you ask for a list of attendees.  I have attached a scanned copy of the Visitors Monitoring Log, which shows those individuals who signed in an attended the meeting.

·       In item number (2) you ask for a copy of the minutes.  I have been advised that no minutes were taken.

·       In item number (3) you ask for audio recordings made.  I have been advised that no audio recordings were made of the meeting.

<<ORR-Dr Holliday 9 27 07.JPG>>

Respectfully,

Brigetta 'Britt' Perry

Legal Services Coordinator

2 Capitol Square

Atlanta, Georgia 30334

(404) 657-5807 Office

(404) 657-4781 Fax














The Telegraph story below was written the day after the notorious meeting at GaDOT.  The background is "black" symbolizing the closed-door secrecy enveloping the meeting.  This meeting fell between cracks in the Ga Sunshine Laws.  And boith GDOT and Bibb County declined to take minutes.  There is not any record of the events of this meeting.  All we (the public) has is to "TRUST" these politicians to tell us the truth.  Several participants at the meeting have financial interests in the widening project.
Posted on Tue, Sep. 18, 2007

Local officials talk about city road project in Atlanta

By Keich Whicker - swhicker@macon.com

A handful of state and local officials met Monday with the state transportation commissioner in Atlanta to discuss the controversial plan to widen parts of Forest Hill Road in north Macon.

At the request of state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, a group of lawmakers that included Bibb County Commission Chairman Charlie Bishop, Commissioner Elmo Richardson and state Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon, sat down with Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl for about an hour and a half for what Richardson described as an "informational meeting" about the project.

The project is "justified," based on the information the group heard Monday, Richardson said.

"I don't think anything has changed," he said, referring to the project and its often-disputed plans. "It's still going forward, as far as I know. There's no justification to make any changes at this time. ... Nothing was presented today ... that would change where we are with the plans."

The current plan, which officials said has been scaled back three times from its original proposal, calls for the two-lane road to be widened into three- and four-lane sections based on DOT traffic counts with data that has varied widely.

Opponents of the project have argued that it should be redesigned to lessen its impact on local neighborhoods. Some community activists also have said the project should include roundabouts, which they think would be safer than standard intersections.

Commissioners have said there is no design money left to redesign the project.

Residents recently argued that the project should be abandoned because it isn't necessary, given that its original intent was to help traffic flow more easily to Macon Mall, which they say is losing visitors.

The only official action on the project in recent months came at a commission meeting earlier this month when Commissioner Joe Allen asked the county attorney if the county had any wiggle room as far as the project is concerned.

Allen wanted to know if the county could possibly not do the project it promised when it presented the last special purpose local option sales tax to voters.

"If (the residents) don't want it, then we shouldn't do it," Allen said.

Bishop, who heads two of the county's most powerful committees on road planning, has said the DOT has already begun buying the land needed to widen the road as planned.

He said he went to Monday's meeting to "see if there are any alternatives," so far as the project is concerned.

"I'm going to go listen to see what Allen (Peake's) proposition is," he said shortly before heading to Atlanta.

Efforts to reach Peake for comment about Monday's meeting were unsuccessful.


To contact writer Keich Whicker, call 744-4494.
Stephen Keich Whicker <sWhicker@macontel.com>,
Allen Peake wrote to Lindsay Holliday a few days after the meeting. (9-19-07) to answer this question from Lindsay: Why was no one representing the Neighborhood Groups invited?

Allen Peake: "Whether you and the Forest Hill Group want to believe it or not, I was there representing the position of the Neighborhood.  I discussed at length the alternative of backing off the project to see where future traffic patterns flowed, or scaling down with left turn lanes and traffic lights at strategic locations. Larry Walker asked specifically about the points raised by Nancy White at their meeting last week.  Senator Cecil Staton asked specifically about whether traffic counts justified the project.  Vic Jones can criticize me all he wants for what he thinks is non-action, but I did my best to represent the Neighborhood and their wishes.  When it was clear that the project was going to move forward based on traffic counts, etc., Cecil and I did our best to focus on making sure the tree and beautification issues were addressed."
"When it was clear that the project was going to move forward based on traffic counts..." - Allen Peake

 OK, Let's talk about these "traffic counts" again.

See detailed analysis here:
http://www.macon-bibb.com/FHR/traffic.htm

It can be tedious to decipher traffic projections, but 
Caution Macon found the time and the experts to do the work. 

We deciphered the traffic data. 
And after numerous articles from the Telegraph in the 1990s and 2000s, the Telegraph Editorial Board surmised this on 6-8-2003 :
" The Georgia Department of Transportation invents phantom public input. And in other instances, particularly over Forest Hill Road, traffic estimates are the stuff of Houdini."

[note: Harry Houdini died in 1926.  As a metaphor, "stuff of Houdini" is a bit dated.  It means - magic, sleight of hand, tricks,  like "pulling a rabbit out of a hat", unreal, made-up, witchcraft, supernatural, see also - shaman and counterspells.  "Possessing distinctive qualities that produce unaccountable or baffling effects" ]

The traffic projections referred to by Peake and by the Keich Whicker/Telegraph article 9-18-07 are not simply wildly or "widely varied" as Whicker reports.  Those traffic projections are totally discredited.  Discredited according to the Telegraph Editors and the citizen-researchers at Caution Macon.

Whicker did accurately report what the "widening proponents" self-reported about their closed-door, traffic-counts meeting, but what they all reported to him was BS.
Unchallenged, unquestioned BS...

These "traffic counts" are the primary justification of this project.  The "counts" are wrong.  Yet the Whicker article does not clarify the "stuff of Houdini" errors repeated by Peake and others.

The Whicker article is a half-done, incomplete story:
A story that misleads the casual readers about the primary justification for destroying a neighborhood in Macon, Ga.

And Peake's nonsense, on-the-record, about "traffic counts" should lead to significant political "blowback" for all those involved in the 9-17-07 meeting.   Shame on them all.  

* *  Summary * *

None of the citizens know precisely what happened inside that "closed-door" meeting on 9-17-07 exept by hearsay, but ...

We do know the deck was stacked against us from the beginning (by the people that Allen invited and took to the meeting) and ...

We do know that a number of those people have a financial interest in the project as planned, and

We do know an eyewitness in the room said "They all spoke with one voice and they said - 'We do not want any changes to the project'"

- Lindsay D Holliday

 Ga Legislator - Allen Peake - Website here
Responds to Citizens' Concerns:
Peake_Allen 

Cecil Staton and I went to Atlanta for the express purpose of looking at other alternatives for the Forest Hill Project. We met with the DOT commissioner Harold Linnenkohl, DOT board member Larry Walker, and Bibb County Commissioners Charlie Bishop, Elmo Richardson, and Bert Bivins, as well as some Bibb County staff members involved in the project. Cecil and I attempted to persuade the Bibb County Commissioners and Commissioner Linnenkohl to first, delay the project until the new mall was built to see if traffic patterns might change, or second, scale back the project with left turn lanes and stop lights at strategic intersections. After significant discussion about these two options, it was clear that the 3 Bibb County Commissioners were going to stick with the design as planned, based on traffic counts that clearly justified the project, based on formulas that DOT uses consistently across the state. So at this point, Cecil and I did our best to gain assurances from the DOT folks that cosmetic concerns would be addressed, particularly related to the trees. We were told that approximately 175 trees would be removed on Forest Hill Rd from Wimbish to Northside, but that approximately 275 would be replanted. I have since chatted with Georgia Power, and they have informed me that approximately 50 trees will be removed as a result of their involvement in the project.

As you may or may not know, I have absolutely no decision making authority in this process, and as a rookie legislator, I have very little political clout to throw around in an attempt to influence the project. I did my best to try and delay the project, and I am sorry that I could not get that accomplished. My focus will now be on making sure that DOT delivers on their promises regarding the cosmetic issues.

I hope this answers your question. If not, please feel free to contact me anytime by email or by phone. My numbers are listed below.

also below

Just so you will know, I did not know until I walked into the room that any staff from Bibb County, or Moreland Altobelli would be in the room.  I knew Charlie Bishop was going to be there, because I had invited him (and I thought I made that clear at the Town Hall Museum meeting).  Charlie had also told me a couple of days before the meeting in Atlanta that Elmo Richardson would be there, since he represented Forest Hill Road.  I did not know Bert Bivins was coming until I saw him in the room.  As for the sign in sheet, I have no idea why the names are blacked out. Maybe they were names from another meeting not associated with FHR?  I don't think I even signed in, since most legislators are given access as a result of our legislative badge.  That was probably the case with Cecil Staton as well.  As for why there was not minutes or audio, I have no idea either.  That was the first time I had ever had a meeting with Harold Linnenkohl, so I don't know what their normal protocol is, but in hindsight, I wish there had been audio, so you could have heard my arguments to delay, or downsize, the project. 
 
All I can tell you is that I did exactly what I promised Lee Martin.  I went to the meeting with the express intent of attempting to delay the project to evaluate future traffic patterns, or to scale down the project with left turn lanes and stoplights at strategic intersections.  After being convinced that the three Commissioners, who have the final decision making authority on the project, were not going to change their mind, I focused on addressing the cosmetic issues.  And I remain committed to staying focused on this issue when, and if, construction begins. 
 
You phrased it best - " We all know that being unable to persuade someone does not equal agreeing with them, especially in politics".  You hit the nail on the head.  I hope the folks from the FHR association know that I will always listen to their concerns, as I do with folks from my entire District.  My home phone number is in the phone book, so folks can call me anytime.  I am not hiding from anyone.  I may not always be able to accomplish what you want, but I will always listen.
 
Allen Peake

- CAUTION Macon -


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