The town of Tyrone has a new weapon in its crime-fighting arsenal that fits perfectly into the police department’s community policing program. It might not be a pursuit vehicle, but the newly outfitted golf cart is already stimulating interactions with residents. Chief Brandon Perkins expects the new patrol unit might contribute to Tyrone’s already falling crime rate.

It is about that time of the year again. The 32nd time, in fact. Tyrone’s 32nd Annual Founder’s Day Festival is set for Sept. 18-20 and is looking to provide something for everyone in the family.

Tyrone Planning Commission got a look at a new proposal Thursday, but it was not from a developer. Fayette County Planning & Zoning Director Pete Frisina presented an idea that would combine the efforts of the town and county to eventually adopt two new zoning districts to address future development along the Ga. Highway 74 North corridor between Sandy Creek Road and the Fairburn/Fulton County line.

It is never over until it is over. Peachtree City resident Nicole File announced Friday that she will run as a write-in candidate against Fayette County School Board Post 1 incumbent Janet Smola in the Nov. 4 general election.

Fayette County Board of Education issued a press release Thursday afternoon in response to the loss of accreditation by Clayton County schools announced earlier today. Regardless the current situation in Clayton, the Fayette school system will hold to its previous position and will only enroll students that reside in Fayette County.

Coweta County school officials were quite pleased this week when SAT scores were released. The system’s 1515 average was sixth best in the state for large systems and beat the national average on the college admissions test for the first time.

The times they are a changing. And for Coweta County those changes include significant growth in residential and business population that provided the impetus for the county commission Aug. 5 to approve a reorganization of county government. Coweta’s population increased by 33 percent between 2000 and the end of 2007.

Piedmont Newnan Hospital has formally acquired ownership of 105 acres of land on Poplar Road near Interstate 85, where its new hospital facility will be located. After receiving approval to develop the land from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the hospital released funds from escrow and closed on the land late last week.

It was a meeting designed to have residents give their input on what the city of Palmetto will look like in the future. The Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) kick-off meeting Aug. 21 at Palmetto Community Center saw a room packed with residents wanting to meet their future head-on.

It was an announcement that amounted to the icing on the cake. Officials from Georgia Military College (GMC) Aug. 25 signed a 10-year lease with the city of Fairburn for the use of an 18,400 square-foot classroom building and 3,800 square feet of administrative space at the city’s new college campus complex that will open in October.

The only thing left to do was vote yea or nay. And by mid-morning Thursday, Fayette County School Board voted unanimously to adopt a revised Maintenance & Operation (M&O) millage rate set at 19.75 mills and a bond debt millage rate of 4.17 mills. The two represent an overall millage increase of 1.754 mills, or $8.2 million.

On Aug. 4, a story in The Citizen indicated there was considerable disagreement between Fayette County Board of Education members Janet Smola and Dr. Bob Todd.

Fayette County High School quarterback Justin Murray fires the ball out of bounds as he is hit by a Jonesboro defender in scrimmage action Friday. The Tigers lost the game 21-14 and open their season this Friday at Stockbridge at 7:30 p.m. For complete football coverage, look inside for our football preview section. Photo/John Munford.

Fayette students, take a bow.

When results of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) were released Tuesday, Fayette’s students posted an overall average score of 1551, three points above last year’s average, 85 points above that of the state and 40 points over the national average. A perfect SAT score is 2400.

The Fayette County Board of Education will hold its third and final public hearing on the millage rate Thursday. The rate will be adopted at the conclusion of the hearing.

Higher education classes in Fayette County are getting more and more crowded.

According to Dr. Kevin Demmitt, director of Clayton State-Fayette, the university’s less-than-a-year old instructional site has a total registered enrollment for all courses of 578 for the semester that opened Aug. 18.

The Peachtree City Council balked last Thursday at approving an easement to build a sewer line between the soccer and softball fields at the Jim Meade sports complex.

A Peachtree City manufacturing facility has received a national award for reducing its use of water, electricity and two other components of its manufacturing process.

TDK Components USA received the National Performance Track award from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The Fayetteville City Council Aug. 21 approved a new parade route that will give a boost to fund-raising efforts for Cleveland Elementary School’s Sept. 13 Curious Fun Run.

The Fayette County Commission is expected to set its final tax rate for residents Thursday night.

In previous years, the rate was set earlier, but the county had to wait on the school board this year. The Board of Education had to adjust its rate after getting more bad economic news from the state.

Fayette County School Superintendent John DeCotis last week was named one of four finalists statewide for the 2009 Georgia School Superintendent of the Year award.

Fayetteville Police were busy last weekend responding to numerous calls on a variety of issues. Two of those calls ended in arrests for carrying a concealed weapon, battery and cruelty to a child.

It is your 1-cent special local option sales tax at work. Construction is well underway for the widening of Jimmie Mayfield Boulevard in Fayetteville.

Fayette County should be drawing water from Lake McIntosh by 2011, despite having to seek a different way to fund part of the project.

Fayette County students will be starting school the second week in August for the next three years, the Board of Education decided Monday night.

The following arrests were reported by local law enforcement agencies for the past week. All persons are considered innocent until proven guilty:

Tonight's scheduled meeting of the Peachtree City Planning Commission has been canceled.

The commission will meet Thursday at 2 p.m. to discuss one of the items that was on the agenda for this evening. The commission will consider approving new exterior colors for the first phase of the Kedron Village shopping center which includes a Kroger store.

National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch from 4 p.m. Monday through Tuesday evening for a large portion of north and west central Georgia that includes Fayette and Coweta counties.