This summer, Peachtree City police began to patrol the cart paths using two all terrain vehicles. Now they are preparing to start bike patrols.

This week a group of officers learned how to maneuver their bike in extreme conditions, going up and down stairs and negotiating other obstacles.

Solutions sought to amphitheater’s projected $236K loss this year

Peachtree City officials are hoping to get public input Tuesday night on operations of the city’s amphitheater and tennis center.

Through the magic of Photoshop, the Peachtree City Planning Commission got to look at several different color schemes Thursday for the original Kedron Village shopping center.

Standard and Poor’s recently has upgraded Peachtree City’s bond rating from AA+ to AAA.

The change came after a detailed S&P analysis of city finances, finance policies and other factors in the city’s economy, according to the S&P report.

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.

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.

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.

141 citations issued so far in 424 hours of path patrol

So far this year, Peachtree City police have logged 424 hours of patrol on the cart path system.

Some groups using Peachtree City facilities will have to pay more starting in January thanks to new fees that will be charged.

3 concerts left give amphitheater chance to improve results

A plan to cut the number of concerts at Peachtree City's amphitheater in half was approved along with next year's budget for the city's tourism association Thursday night.

Panasonic has donated $13,000 to kick start fund-raising for a new K-9 program for the Peachtree City Police Department.

An estimated $40,000 is needed to start the program with two dogs, equipment and training, police said.

Will add to base of tower, not height, as Verizon upgrades equipment

Verizon Wireless will be allowed to update the equipment on a cell phone tower off Senoia Road thanks to a variance approved Thursday by the Peachtree City Council.

The Peachtree City Planning Commission will get its first look Monday night at a plan to build an AutoZone at Wilshire Village on Ga. Highway 74 South.

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.

An agreement has been drafted for Peachtree City to pay $35,000 to the city's Tourism Association to help cover an expected year-end shortfall of $82,000.

Now that the new school zone times in Peachtree City are posted, the next job is to erect new larger school zone signs ... and new signs that will warn motorists before they enter the school zones.

Peachtree City tourism officials are proposing a significant change to the city’s annual summer concert series for next year.