New Tyrone town manager Chris Venice has a two-year contract with her new employer.

Mayor Don Rehwaldt confirmed that Venice will be paid $97,000 a year in her post, and would receive three months in severance if the town decides to terminate her employment.

All’s well that ends well. The same can be said for beginnings. Tyrone’s old library closed its door in December, but the two week wait for the new 9,009 square-foot library on Commerce Drive to open Jan. 2 was worth the wait.

Many might think that Union City council members Helen Turner and Alisa King would be downhearted after coming up short in the November election. But the expressions on their faces tell a different story as residents and city employees throw a recent farewell party in their honor. Photo/Ben Nelms.

The bell rang early Jan. 1 at the Rico Road fire station in Chattahoochee Hill Country. And the call that came over the loudspeaker signaled a changing of the guard. That change signified the transition that puts fire services squarely in the hands of the new Chattahoochee Hill Country Fire Department.

It is a time of change in south Fulton, a political change that is. The turning of the calendar to the new year means it is a time to say goodbye to some holding elected office and hello to several newcomers.

There is an ongoing list of housekeeping issues involved with establishing a new city. Some of those issues were on the agenda for the Jan. 2 council meeting at Chattahoochee Hill Country. Yet there was another issue that surfaced during the public comments portion of the meeting. It involved questions about overall communication with citizens so that information can be disseminated and questions can be asked and answered in a timely fashion.

An early afternoon call to Palmetto Police Dec. 28 about possible prowlers near Carlton Road led to the arrest of two juveniles less than an hour later.

It could be a gas station or a convenience store or a restaurant or a self-storage warehouse or a combination of the four. A proposal for commercial development on the northwest corner of Senoia Road and Rockwood Road presented Dec. 27 to Tyrone Planning Commission was withdrawn until a revised proposal can be made.

It was only a little over two acres, but questions were significant enough to have a residential rezoning proposal continued until Tyrone Planning commissioners could obtain additional information.

The kids from Fairburn’s International Learning Academy, ages 1-4, steal the day Dec. 14 as they put on a Christmas peformance for residents at Christian City. “We wanted to spead good cheer during the holidays,” said director Monica Peart. Photo/Ben Nelms.

Tyrone Police have been busy. And their efforts were not contained only to law enforcement. Members of the department continued their gift giving ways that began earlier in December in the Shop with a Cop program for needy children with a visit to Southland Nursing Home in Peachtree City Dec. 21 to help Santa stuff stockings using some of the proceeds from the earlier effort.

Most everyone in south Fulton and across metro Atlanta today who pays attention to criminal activity is acutely aware that juvenile crime is skyrocketing. But if Fulton County Commissioner Bill Edwards has his way, the juvenile crime statistics for 2008 might show some needed improvement.

Members of the Sandy Creek Kiwanis Key Club recently serenaded at the Azalea Estates Assisted Living Center and the home of Carolyn Cary.

GBI seeks four suspects in shooting

It was a bizarre incident at Duncan Park in Fairburn that has many questions still unanswered. In its wake, a man who had been kidnapped was seriously injured and four others are being sought by Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

Fairburn’s Green Oill Co. employees Donna Nichols and Sandra Candiotti display a check for $30,000 raised by company employees for charities benefitting children. Employees from the company’s five locations raised more than $1,000 each day for five days, surpassing their combined goal of $25,000. “We are so proud and grateful for the efforts and success of each and every member of our team. They exceeded a goal that we thought would be extremely difficult to achieve,” said marketing director Jim Callahan. Photo/Ben Nelms.

A Tyrone man was arrested Christmas Eve on charges of aggravated assault after attacking his wife with a knife.

John L. Hill, Jr., 44, admitted to police that he had struck his wife with a steak knife, causing a laceration, approximately one-inch in length and one-inch deep along her jaw, according to Public Information Officer Alicia Batts.

Fairburn police and firefighters make a difference in the life of a Hurricane Katrina survivor and her children this Christmas. Their efforts on behalf of the city’s new resident, and with the help of businesses in Fairburn and Palmetto, made the holiday season especially meaningful. Photo/Ben Nelms.

Things just have not tuned out like Cliftwood Development, Inc. planned. An effort by the developer to have 18.63 acres at Ga. Highway 138 and Jonesboro Road in Union city rezoned for the construction of 60 attached homes began with a denial by the city’s planning commission in June and ended Dec. 18 by withdrawing the proposal from the city council agenda until a later date.

Badcock Furniture is planning a move to Tyrone on Ga. Highway 74. Those plans will require additional work before the planning commission can address the site plan.

Cadets from the Sandy Creek High Air Force Junior ROTC (AFJROTC) program have volunteered their time to support many area community services. The most recent effort was the AFJROTC annual canned food drive. Each fall cadets get the entire Sandy Creek student body involved in donating food for local needs. Over the past several years the donations have helped the Real Life Center.

The C.H.O.I.C.E.S (Children Heeding Opportunities in Community and Educational Services) students at Bear Creek Middle School in Fairburn had a couple of opportunities to make the right choice by giving back to their community during this holiday season.

It may be on the way to becoming a fleeting memory in some places, but not in Chattahoochee Hill Country.

It was not an official meeting but it had all the makings of one. New Tyrone Mayor Don Rehwaldt, above, and new council members Tracy Young and Eric Dial took the oath of office at town hall Thursday night as nearly 75 supporters looke on. Photos/Ben Nelms.

For the second time in three months, the Shell convenience store on Palmetto Road was the site of a burlary. The latestc crimeoccurred Dec. 16 at approximately 10:45 p.m. Police were alerted by an alarm call, finding the store’s front door busted out, said Tyrone Police spokesperson Alicia Batts. The owner arrived and confirmed that two cash registers had been pried open and drawers were missing, she said. An undisclosed amount of cash was missing.

It was all over virtually before it started. Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford sided with Walker Brothers-owned First Victoria Properties Dec. 19 in upholding the company’s contention that it is within its rights to construct a controversial trash transfer station on Bohannon Road in Fairburn.

Everything comes to an end. That was the case at the Dec. 18 council meeting as Union City Police Chief Mike Isome announced to the mayor and city council that he would be resigning effective Dec. 29.

Some Christmas goodies come with a price, though with some it might take a get out of jail card to get home in time for Christmas. Drug busts do not take a holiday, according to agents with Fayette’s Drug Task Force (DTF). That was the case for a Union City man arrested in Fayette County on cocaine and marijuana charges.

A relatively new type of burglary occurred near the Fulton/Fayette County line in the early morning hours Dec. 17. It was one in which the members of Fayette and Fulton’s many churches should pay close attention. Burglars left money behind in an organized theft that targeted the hard drives from the church computers.

It is a clear example of how dangerous the highways can be.

The elated spirit of many in the packed council chambers Dec. 11 and 12 in the new city hall at Chattahoochee Hill Country was difficult to put into words. For so many people who worked so hard to bring a vision into reality, it was the culmination of a movement for city-hood that began as a dream and became something alive, something that now has a life of its own.