By JOHN THOMPSON
Coweta Editor
Mama Flora and her family will have to gather somewhere
else after the Coweta County Commission decided Tuesday not
to allow the group to use the old courthouse in Haralson.
AJA Enterprises is filming the television movie "Mama
Flora's Family" around Haralson and wanted to use the courthouse as
a staging area to gather everyone in the morning before the
shooting began. The group also wanted to use the building as an area to
keep the extras until they were needed.
Assistant County Administrator Chuck Crawford said
the county's policy called for a daily rent of $1,000 per day and
the studio wanted the facility for 18 days.
County Commissioner Vernon "Mutt" Hunter said he didn't
have a problem with the movie being filmed in the county, but said
the county had never agreed to let any of their courthouses be
used for such a purpose.
"There's plenty of buildings down there, like the old post
office, that could serve the same purpose," he said.
Hunter said it could set a precedent if the county allowed
the studio to use the facility.
"Does the county want to get into the rental of property? If
they were going to use it as a backdrop and film the movie there,
that would be different," he said.
The commission voted unanimously to deny the use of
the facility to the movie folks.
In other news, the commission heard that a number of
potholes had been fixed at the South Oaks Mobile Home Park. After
viewing the conditions of the roads at the park, the commission told
the owners that county emergency vehicles would not be
allowed into the facility until the roads were fixed.
The commissioners said that county vehicles could suffer
severe damage trying to navigate the pothole-filled roads, and
he did not want the taxpayers paying for damaged vehicles caused
by bad private roads.
Crawford told the commissioners that several potholes had
been filled in and it was now safe for emergency vehicles to travel
the roads again.