Friday, May 23, 2003
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Friday, May 23, 2003 |
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McMullen feeling at home in new job By J. FRANK
LYNCH
He's only been on the job for a few days, but Barnard McMullen is feeling right at home as the new city manager in Peachtree City. Barnard, who was officially awarded the $110,000-a-year position at the May 15 City Council meeting, spent the first week touring facilitites and getting to know city staff, he said. He's planning meet-and-greet sessions with employees and managers in each of the city's departments as soon as they can be arranged. If his casual rapport with other employees at City Hall one day earlier this week is any indication, it has been a near seamless transition. The 11-year resident of the city, formally head of the General Services Department in Fulton County, said his suspicions are confirmed: "Peachtree City is a great place to live, and my experience so far is that it's a great place to work, too." McMullen said his years in the military as a supply and logistics officer with the Air Force, as well as his tenure managing all the people, buildings and vehicles it takes to run Fulton County government, have prepared him well for Peachtree City. "One of my personal traits is being able to get along with people, to avoid having a personal agenda," he said this week in his neat, but bare, office at City Hall. "I think of myself as a bridge builder. Those are the truths that will help me in this job." If just getting to know the names and faces is his first short-time goal, his long-range plans remain muddy because the city is entering an uncharted period of its history. A Kedron Village resident, Bernard said he saw how the explosive growth of the last 10 years filled up that part of the city and edged it even closer to the "build-out" cap on population growth defined by the city's master plan. He acknowledges that the decisions the city makes now will have great impact for years to come. "You do one of two things," he said, when a community reaches maturity, as is Peachtree City. "You improve, or you die. You can't stay still. But just because the population is reaching its physical limit, that doesn't mean nothing is going to change." Sewers, streets, lights, buildings, recreation amenities --they will always need replacing or improving, he said. "All those boring things a city government provides, if you don't continue to designate money to them, they will start to deteriorate."
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