Dear Ms. Machemehl,

First of all, thank you for taking the time to write. You are right to be concerned and you are right to be frustrated. We are all frustrated. I will do my best to explain only a couple items, but the truth is that it would be better explained in person and I will meet with you - up at Kedron if you wish - any time.

The Kedron pool bubble was initially installed 15 years ago. Good engineering practices dictate that a set of drawings would be generated and stored indicating everything about the installation - where the support beams were located (since they are under concrete these drawings are pretty important), where power is run, everything. I am sorry to say the "as-builts", as they are called, were nowhere to be found. Prior to starting the new bubble project we spent months trying to track down information on the original installer or any drawings but came up empty-handed. We had to proceed, and we did so hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. As you now know, as we all now know, we ran into the worst, again and again. For example, when we first began pulling out concrete, we discovered that the grounding/bonding system was so old it had pretty much fallen to pieces. "Bonding" refers to connecting everything in a pool together - ladders, lights, etc. - under the concrete so they can all be tied to ground and "grounded." This is a critical safety issue, something that we learned about only when the concrete was pulled up, but of course, something we addressed fully and re-installed properly this time. That costs more and it takes more time but it simply has to be done. There were dozens of examples like this.

Holly I promise you that the delays have not been due to a lack of effort by city personnel or any lack of concern by the city. Our City Engineer and our Director of Public Services have absolutely prioritized this project. They have worked on little else over the last four months. I have been checking in; our City Manager has been checking in; we are all anxious and concerned about getting everything installed, working, and safe. I want to tell you I have a high school Junior who is, starting this week, trying out for the lacrosse team again, which means he gets home from school around 8pm totally exhausted. I can only imagine the disruption to your family, especially to your children's schedules, resulting from having to drive so far to practice their sport. I am truly sorry. If it is any small consolation, we are, this time around, doing things right. We are constructing a long-lasting, quality facility. It will be safe. And we will have as-builts on file so Peachtree City citizens never have to go through this again.

I will give you my cellphone number, (770) 826-6707, so you can call me at your convenience and we can meet. I hope you don't need to call me at 4am but if you do, I'll know where you are coming from. Again, thank you for taking the time to share your frustrations and I'm sorry for what your family has gone through.

Sincerely,