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Plans moving forward for PTC tourism center

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Visitors passing through Peachtree City looking for a place to stay or eat will soon have an official stop where all that information will be readily available.

Wednesday night, the board of directors for the Peachtree City Tourism Association voted to proceed with plans to turn the original clubhouse at the Peachtree City Tennis Center into a visitors center. The building has sat mostly empty since spring of 2003, when tennis center operations moved into the larger clubhouse building next door. It has been used as a registration area for tournaments and storage mostly, workers at the tennis center said.

The building needs some repairs. The gabled roof leaks, and there are signs of water damage in several areas.

Board Chairman Steve Rapson said the Tourism Association in its current year budget has $17,000 set aside to start up a dinner theater and launch a Scottish festival, but those funds could be redirected to renovate the building.

Member Murray Weed said the building was completley functional.

“I’d rather not delay,” he said. “After we fix the leaks, I saw we start using it.”

Tourism Association Executive Director Linda McCarthy said operating a visitors center, even on a staff of volunteers as planned, would be a waste of time if nobody knew it was there or stopped by.

Board member Bernard McMullen, who doubles as city manager, replied that efforts were underway to get appropriate signage to direct visitors to the building, located just off Ga. Highway 54 West and Planterra Way.

McCarthy said she has a meeting planned with a company that specializes in stocking such visitors centers with brochures and the like. Ideally, the Peachtree City center would provide information for the entire area, including many Metro Atlanta attractions, she said.

Money to operate the visitors center is included in the Tourism Association’s budget, primarily using funds collected from the city’s hotel-motel tax which by law must be spent on promote tourism-related projects.