Friday, Mar. 4, 2005

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Tourism board seeking advisory committee members

Input needed for tennis center, amphitheater

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The Peachtree City Tourism Association has approved a policy that will create advisory committees for both the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater and the Peachtree City Tennis Center.

The advisory committees will be used to provide input on various aspects of the facilities’ management.

The next step for the association is getting the word out so applications can be taken. The association will e-mail all tennis center members and work to put the application on its Web site.

In other business Wednesday night, the association approved rental fees for the classrooms at the tennis center and a banquet room at the amphitheater. During regular hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, it will cost $30 an hour (or $225 for the whole day) for one classroom, while two classrooms will cost $50 an hour or $400 a day. The amphitheater’s room during those hours will cost $30 and hour or $225 for the whole day.

The charges will multiply by one and a half for nighttime, weekend and holiday use, with an extra charge of $20 an hour for a maintenance facility worker to remain on hand if needed.

Association Chairman Murray Weed said now that the small “hut” building at the tennis center has been renovated, he would like to move forward with starting up the operations of the planned visitor’s center.

Executive Director Linda McCarthy said it would cost about $14,000 to get the center started, as racks for brochures cost several thousand dollars and a touch screen computer would make information available at all hours even when the center was closed.

However, that money could not be found in the budget, McCarthy said, and Weed asked to go ahead with progress on the center on the cheap. He even said he would pay for several inexpensive racks to hold brochures, just to get a start.

It was noted that the signage issue had not yet been addressed for the visitor’s center, but it was suggested that staff at City Hall could give visitors directions on how to get there.

McCarthy said she was in the process of getting a contract for the board to consider that would allow a free brochure to be created for the association. The same company she is working with is also doing a similar free brochure for the city, and both brochures would be supported entirely be advertising costs.

Association member Bob King said he, too, wanted to see the visitor’s center up and running as soon as possible.