Is Coweta County going to be the next Silicon Valley?

After a glowing report delivered to the Coweta County Commission from 21st Century Coweta director Scott Frederick, it appears the county is poised to capitalize on the area's growing reputation for its Internet connection.

Frederick told the commissioners Tuesday night that several high-tech companies are looking at locating facilities in the county.

Among the prospects:

• A financial company looking at building a 100,000-sq. ft. facility and employing 300 college graduates.

• A major national company looking at placing a 700,000-sq. ft. warehouse and distribution center in the county and investing $20 million in the county in facilities and personnel.

• An Israeli high-tech company that wants to locate near Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport.

• A project dubbed “Project Falcon” that could employ 5,000 people in its eighth year in the county and provide an investment of $250 million into the county.

The number of prospects visiting the county has exploded in the last year, Frederick said. One of the reasons is the county-wide effort to be at the head of the Internet curve.

“It's now said that Newnan has the fastest Internet connection in the state,” he said.

Newnan Utilities has laid fiber-optic lines throughout the city to provide Internet service to customers. On the eastern side of the county, Pathway Communities is launching one of the state's first Intranet services to help residents in its new SummerGrove community connect with each other and find babysitters or set up common interest clubs.

Frederick's report to the commissioners comes on the heels of a rough few months for the county's industrial recruitment organization.

The commissioners have questioned the organization's budget and Commissioner Jim McGuffey even suggested the entire organization needed to be folded in under the authority of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce.

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