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PTC tourism chief leaves for ‘better job’ elsewhere

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The Peachtree City Tourism Association, which operates the city’s tennis center and amphitheater, is losing its executive director.

Linda McCarthy, who came on board in September, gave the association her resignation in executive session after Wednesday night’s board meeting. McCarthy said Tuesday that the only reason she is leaving is to advance her career for the out-of-state job she has accepted.

“It had nothing to do with anything but that,” McCarthy said. “I wasn’t going out for anything or sending out any resumes.”

Instead, McCarthy said she was contacted by someone with “an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“It will further my career financially and professionally,” McCarthy said.

Tourism Association Chairman Murray Weed said Tuesday that no one will be sought to fill McCarthy’s position, “at least during this budget cycle,” which ends in September. Instead, the association will rely on Tennis Center Manager David Gary and Amphitheater Manager Randy Angrisano to keep the venues running.

Weed said McCarthy was “leaving on good terms.”

“We were happy, she was happy,” Weed said.

McCarthy’s resignation allows the association to shift two employees to staff the new visitor’s center full-time, Weed noted; both were formerly under McCarthy’s supervision and now they will report to Gary, Weed said. The visitor’s center recently opened on the tennis center campus in the small building commonly referred to as the “hut.”

The association is on track to at least break even financially by the end of the fiscal year, McCarthy said, adding that she was confident that would occur with the continued oversight of the board of directors.

McCarthy said she has enjoyed working in the city and she is very thankful for the support of the community, association sponsors and the board.

“The board really has things moving in the right direction,” McCarthy said. The association has a great staff in place, she added.

McCarthy’s last day will technically be June 15, but she will take some accrued vacation time and leave a week earlier. She declined to provide details of her new position except to say she will be working in the same industry.

McCarthy presided over a tumultuous time for the tennis center, as the transition was made to a new management strategy at the tennis center. Ultimately, previous tennis center director Sean Ferriera was passed over by the association, angering some tennis center members.

Several other employees later resigned, but the personnel situation has been stabilized in recent months with the addition of current tennis center director David Gary.

In addition to those changes, the association under McCarthy’s direction has funded significant maintenance improvements at the amphitheater and tennis center, opened the visitor’s center and worked with Fayette County officials on the Tour de Georgia bike race, McCarthy noted. The association is also close to unveiling its new Web sites, she added.

The association is also in the process of securing another restaurant to operate at the tennis center, which was requested by members on a recent tennis center survey.