The Senoia City Council decided to spend just over $12,000 Monday night to upgrade three police vehicles with digital recording equipment.

Coweta County Commission will conduct a Sept. 16 public hearing on the 2009 budget that takes effect in October. As proposed, the $60.5 million 2009 General Fund budget represents a 1.5 percent increase, or $923,000, over the current year.

For the first time in years, it’s going to be a quiet electoral season in Senoia.

This year, two City Council positions were up for election; Councilman Maurice Grover and Bobby Graham. But when the dust had settled, no one qualified to oppose the incumbents and no legal write-in candidates tossed their hats into the ring.

The Coweta County Board of Education gave its go-ahead Tuesday to start the redistricting process for the county’s newest elementary school, Brooks Elementary.

The Newnan Fire Department has purchased a new Pierce mini pumper. The pumper arrived in Newnan late last week. The new pumper can hold 500 gallons of water per minute. The pumper is capable of backing up all fire engines currently in service.

2008 property tax bills for the year 2008 will be mailed September 15 with a due date of October 31, 2008.  The city would like to remind citizens that anyone owning property in the city of Newnan will receive two separate tax bills, one from the city of Newnan and one from Coweta County, each payable to the appropriate party. 

What a beautiful Labor Day weekend it was in west Coweta as countless families dotted the landscape while enjoying live music, tons of food and endless shopping for arts and crafts under the shade of a million trees at the annual Powers’ Crossroads Arts & Music Festival.

The recent announcement by Gov. Sonny Perdue to withhold the state’s annual rebate from the Homestead Tax Relief Grant credits as a way of combatting the state’s shrinking revenues made its way to the Coweta County Commission agenda Sept. 2. Commissioners decided to mail tax bills as usual in the hopes that legislators can successfully address the issue in January. If the credit is withheld, the county will have to send an additional bill to property owners in 2009 on behalf of the county and school board to recoup approximately $6 million that would normally be rebated by the state.

It looks like Coweta County will retain its membership in the Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center (RDC) instead of joining Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). Commissioners discussed the potential move again Sept. 2, but the brief discussion ended without a vote. It was an outcome that, for all appearances, left the idea of joining ARC dead in the water. Yet a transition is likely to occur regardless, with Chatt-Flint expected to eventually merge with McIntosh RDC to become a 10-county Regional Center (RC).

It was essentially an annual housekeeping chore Sept. 2 when the Coweta County Commissioners approved nearly a million dollar payment to the county’s employee Defined Benefit Group Pension Plan. The plan is being supplanted by a defined contribution plan said to give employees more flexibility and cost taxpayers less money.

Senoia’s annual car show will remain on Main Street.

The car show was set to move to the parking lot behind the Redneck Gourmet building for this year’s edition after a group of downtown merchants said it would adversely affect their business.

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.

East Coweta faced off against Starr’s Mill in a preseason scrimmage last Friday.

It was over almost as soon as it began. A rezoning request Aug. 19 to Coweta County Commission by Orion R.E.I. to have the 7.78 acres at Ga. Highway 154 and Manchester Drive in Sharpsburg rezoned for the construction of eight office buildings totaling 50,000 square feet was defeated by a 3-2 vote with no discussion.

The rehabilitation of Coweta County’s historic courthouse includes more than the building itself. Nandinas and oakleaf hydrangeas adorning the courthouse grounds will be removed in coming weeks and will be available for sale later this year through Coweta County Extension Service’s Master Gardeners program.

The Coweta County Board of Education has appointed Newnan attorney Graylin Ward to the school board’s 4th district seat.

Ward, a resident of the Canongate neighborhood, will fulfill the unexpired term of Board member Brian Roy, which extends through the end of 2010.  Roy resigned from the board in March because of a family move to a new home out-of-county.

American Legion member Harold Barron was nothing if not persuasive. His request on behalf of the organization to have the Coweta County Commissioners contribute to the construction of Veteran’s Memorial Park in the Temple Avenue Park in Newnan was approved unanimously Aug. 19. The Commission agreed to allocated up to $125,000 for the project to honor Coweta’s veterans.

Piedmont Newnan Hospital has received approval on its Certificate of Need (CON) Application from the Georgia Department of Community Health, Division of Health Planning, for an outpatient imaging center at the Summit Healthplex on Highway 34 East.

They accomplish a lot with only a few staff. That was the message Aug. 19 as Coweta/South Fulton Forestry Unit Chief Ranger Terry Quigley gave his annual report of forestry unit activities to Coweta County commissioners.

The city of Newnan Police will start The School Familiarization Program this school year. Police officers will make city schools a part of their regular patrols. The program calls for officers to conduct foot patrols through all the schools within their assigned beat.

Parents of Coweta County School System students now have the opportunity to follow their children’s daily attendance, grades and other school matters online, with the opening of the Parent Portal.

The Coweta County Fire Department raised $6000 at its 12th annual charity golf tournament.

The first tenant of Newnan Village Crossing is the American Theater Corporation, which will build an extensive state-of-the art entertainment complex including six cinemas, a 500-seat outdoor amphitheatre, and a wine bar music cabaret.

It is the end of a law enforcement era. Palmetto Police Chief Bobby Fronebarger recently announced his retirement after more than four years in south Fulton city and more than 41 years in law enforcement. His retirement takes effect Sept. 2. Fronebarger is known for his professional approach to law enforcement and for a laid-back style that is always accompanied by a smile.

RDC or ARC? It is more than just letters of the alphabet and it could be the difference from being a big fish in a little pond or being a small player with a seat at the table. A discussion by Coweta County commissioners last week on whether to stay in the Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center (RDC) or to join Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) was delayed until the commission’s Sept. 4 meeting.

There will be a fundraiser for Joey’s Toy Box at the Thomas Crossroads Publix on Saturday, Aug. 16. Mike Hutcheson of “Dishing With Mike” will do a live show at 11 a.m. on Saturday and the fundraiser goes until 3 p.m.