"Zoning Department this is Helen, can I help you?"

Fayetteville residents have been hearing that in one form or another for 31 and a half years, but they heard it for the last time last Wednesday.

Helen Ayers, "Ms. Helen" to City Hall regulars, retired following a hectic day of phone calls and drop-ins from longtime friends and acquaintances, topped off by a tearful good-bye party.

"She was always good to me when I was here," said Fayette County Commission Chairman Robert Sprayberry. A former Fayetteville councilman, Sprayberry stopped by to offer his congratulations and a hug. "She's a good lady. She contributed a lot to Fayetteville."

"I've got a lot of memories, most of them good," said Ayers as she tried unsuccessfully to pack up the personal items in her desk in between interruptions.

Ayers started work at City Hall in May 1967. "I really didn't have a title," she said. She didn't need one. She and city manager J.A. Lester were the only employees in the building.

Born in Henry County, across from the racetrack now known as Atlanta International Raceway, Ayers moved with her family to Woolsey at the age of 8.

She was graduated from Fayette County High School and took her first full time job with Fulton National Bank. After a few years working at the bank, interrupted by a short stint in a doctor's office in East Point, Ayers learned that Fayetteville Mayor Bo Ingram was talking with her sister-in-law about going to work at City Hall.

"She didn't want [the job]. She called me, and I called Mr. Lester and he agreed to meet with me, and that's how I ended up here," she said.

"Water bills, business licenses, zoning... everything was done in that little building there," Ayers recalled. That little building is no longer there. It was part of a cluster that included the sheriff's office and county health department, across from the Fayette Courthouse next to the site where the Holliday Inn is now.

In addition to the City Hall crew of two, there were two police officers and a water department, Ayers said. A year later, the city started growing by leaps and bounds. "We hired two more police officers, and they read water meters part of the time," she recalled.

In 1973, the city government moved into a house farther east on Stonewall Avenue, next to the water tower, and later moved the old city train depot to the site to house the water department.

"[Duties] were divided up and more people hired," Ayers said. What stands out about the last 31 years? "The growth, the people and the traffic."

Now there are about 120 people working at city Hall. They moved into an old elementary school on Ga. Highway 85 two years ago to get more room.

Ayers has done just about everything there is to do at City Hall, and settled into the zoning department some time ago, where she has been known as the person to go to for answers.

Michael Bryant, who came to work as city manager just this past June, appreciates that. "She's a wealth of corporate knowledge," he said.

During the good-bye party, City Councilman Glenn Brewer agrees. "She's got the greatest recall of anyone I've ever known," he says. Councilman Larry Dell adds, "When I came here ten years ago, Helen was one of those that when you had a question, she had an answer."

Ayers answers the questions with the same friendly smile she gives everyone she sees at City Hall. "Yes, I get a lot of calls," she said. "When something comes in that involves something that happened a long time ago, they put it through me," she laughed.

She answers the phone, and it's a coworker agonizing over how all those questions will get answered now. "You'll survive," Ms. Helen tells her. "There'll be somebody else here to answer those questions that y'all need answered."

Ms. Helen will take the next three months to do absolutely nothing except what she wants to, she said, adding her churchalways can use volunteers. "There's plenty that can be done."

Meanwhile, she has three children and eight grandchildren, and the first great-grandchild is on the way. "They all grow up so fast," she said, visibly pleased at the prospect of having more time for family.