Coweta County Commission chairman Lawrence Nelms flatly denied Tuesday the commission was trying to eliminate 21st Century Coweta.

21st Century Coweta is an industrial recruitment agency jointly funded by government and private companies to try and bring more industries to the county. Two weeks ago, Commissioner Jim McGuffey surprised the commission by motioning that the group be folded under the authority of the Coweta County Development Authority and the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce.

During this Tuesday's meeting, Nelms said that McGuffey's motion was a "long complicated motion" and no paperwork was submitted to the commissioners, who were surprised by the motion.

Nelms has been saddened by the media play given to the action and noted the efforts to restructure the county's industrial development have been observed in Atlanta as a "further division of effort in Coweta County."

The chairman pointed out that nearly a year had been devoted to creating the industrial group and that it was highly unlikely the commission would cancel those efforts in five minutes.

"There has not been a vote to do away with 21st Century Coweta. The concept of restructuring the industrial effort has been approved by the Commission for discussion among themselves only," Nelms said.