Parade preprartions underway

Peachtree City's annual 4th of July parade will be held this year on Monday, July 4th, starting at 9 a.m. The parade begins on Peachtree Parkway near the Braelinn Golf Course. It will proceed north on Peachtree Parkway, crossing over Crosstown Road, will turn left onto McIntosh Trail and will disperse at Huddleston Elementary School and McIntosh Trail Recreation Complex.

Several new rules will be in place this year that are aimed at making the parade a local hometown patriotic celebration. Parade organizers say the parade had gotten larger and more commercialized than intended.

"The event originally started out as a golf cart parade, but over the years larger and larger entries were allowed," said Randy Gaddo, Director of Leisure Services. "It went too far when large 18 wheelers were allowed in with minimum, if any, patriotic decorations. It started to be more an opportunity to market a business rather than to celebrate our nation's independence and the birth of democracy here."

Gaddo added that safety considerations also went into making decisions to change the makeup of the parade in terms of the size of entries.

No entries from outside Fayette County will be allowed to register in the parade. The only exception will be if the city's parade organizers specifically invite them. "We will reserve the right to invite out of county entries if we feel they will enhance the parade's overall patriotic or aesthetic appeal," said Gaddo.

Peachtree City entries (individuals, businesses or civic/service/church organizations) will get a one-week head start on registration. They will be allowed to register from June 1 through June 7.

Registration for all other Fayette County entries (individuals, businesses or civic/service/church organizations) will begin June 8.

Small fees will be charged this year to all categories of entries that are from Fayette County other than Peachtree City. A $25 fee will be charged to residents and service, civic and church organizations that are from Fayette County outside of Peachtree City. A $50 fee will be charged for commercial businesses from Fayette County outside of Peachtree City. Peachtree City entries will not be charged a fee.

The fees were approved by City Council last year both as a means of offsetting staff and administrative expenses for putting on the parade and to limit the parade to predominately Peachtree City entries.