Mayor asks council to withdraw from deal with Coweta

Upset with a lack of communication from Coweta County library system officials, Senoia Mayor Robert Belisle asked his fellow council members Monday to withdraw from the library system and the city’s $21,000 funding commitment.

Belisle said he has been frustrated with communications, citing a letter he sent two weeks ago to Coweta library officials that has remained unanswered. He also said that information has been supplied to another library board member though the Senoia member’s request for the same information has been stymied.

Council declined to support Belisle’s motion to withdraw from the Coweta library system on a 3-2 vote. But Councilman Larry Owens said if the city doesn’t get a response in another two weeks he might change his vote to support withdrawing.

Belisle said he also is incredibly frustrated with the lack of progress on construction of Senoia’s library, which is to be handled by Coweta County. He noted that the city approved three different parcels of property for the library location before the county agreed to build it.

“From where it sits at this point we are no more forward than it was five years ago,” Belisle said, noting the city’s ongoing police station/municipal court project that will be built in roughly one year from conceptualization to construction.

“My contention is, if there were a true desire to have that library built, it would be built by now,” Belisle said.

Owens noted that “other than coming to some small consensus” the library project is not much further along.

City Administrator Richard Ferry said the county has made some amendments to the construction plans after officials realized the plan submitted to the Senoia planning commission wasn’t going to be feasible.

When Senoia joined the Coweta library system, the system took over operations of the Senoia library which previously was operated by city employees.

Voting in favor of withdrawing from the Coweta County library system were Belisle and councilman Bobby Graham. Voting against were Maurice Grover, Jeff Fisher and Owens.

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