Expansion plans for CSX Intermodal got the go ahead June 11 when Fairburn City Council approved the conceptual site plan for the phase two development that will add another 700 parking spaces for trucks, add two sets of railroad tracks and double the amount of truck traffic into the McLarin facility. Current and future traffic directly affects all traffic traveling along Ga. Highway 74 near I-85.

Palmetto Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are seeking two men in connection to a June 8 armed robbery at RBC Bank on Roosevelt Highway. No one was injured in the incident.

Here we go again. Three men from Atlanta, Riverdale and Lumber City were arrested on multiple drug and firearms charges Wednesday evening in a drug deal on Ga. Highway 92 when they attempted to purchase 25 pounds of marijuana and one kilogram of cocaine from undercover agents. The men tried to convince agents to travel to Union City to complete the transaction.

It’s an upgrade intended to keep pace with the changing face of a city that has nearly tripled in size in the past seven years. Marketing consultant Pat Pallend June 11 gave Fairburn City Council a tour of the city’s newly expanding website. New to the site are city council agendas and meeting minutes, commonly used forms and applications and virtual tours.

It was one of those back and forth things with everyone standing their ground. South Fulton Municipal Regional Water & Sewer Authority hit another impasse Tuesday over the question of what to do with the funds that will come from refinancing the authority’s $41.7 million bond.

Expansion plans for CSX Intermodal got the go ahead June 11 when Fairburn City council approved the conceptual site plan that will add another 700 parking spaces for trucks, add two sets of railroad tracks and double the amount of truck traffic into the facility on McLarin Road.

It is like most every Saturday at Serenbe.

Palmetto Elementary School student Kendell Redding receives the Most Improved Student Award for 2007, presented at a recent ceremony by Old Campbell County Kiwanis Club.

Nine cub scouts and their families from Pack 373 sponsored by St.

CSX Railroad may get what it wants from Fairburn, but only if it makes good on issues that have plagued the city, and municipal neighbor Palmetto, for many years. Fairburn planning commissioners Tuesday tied their recommendation on the railroad’s expansion plans to a dozen conditions, including repairing and maintaining the three degraded and dangerous overpasses and consideration of establishing a “quiet zone” for the customary train whistles that blow throughout the downtown area in the dead of night.

Tyrone’s biggest budget in its history drew nary a peep from any of the citizens at Thursday night’s Town Council meeting.

Palmetto City Council heard a host of citizen’s concerns during the public comments portion of the June 4 meeting. Those concerns outlasted the remainder of the agenda and centered on trash pick-up and the continually expressed need for city-sponsored recreation and increased police officers.

The new Jones-Hall Middle School is ready for business. Registration for the fall term will begin next week just down the road at Renaissance Elementary located at 7250 Hall Road.

A proposal to develop a two-acre site in the Sycamore Grove commercial area on Tyrone-Palmetto Road ran into a zoning snag at the May 31 meeting of Tyrone Planning Commission. This time, the snag belongs to the town. And in the end the proposal was tabled until a legal decision can be obtained.

It was only 25 feet, but that was too much for Tyrone Planning Commission. A variance request May 31 to reduce setbacks on corner lots in the new John Wieland Rivercrest subdivision on Ga. Highway 74 failed by a 3-1 vote.

Two men fled with an undisclosed amount of money Friday afternoon after an armed robbery at RBC Bank in Palmetto. Palmetto Police Chief Bobby Fronebarger said no one was injured during the robbery.

Long-time clinical social worker and South Fulton/Fayette Community Task Force Chairman Connie Biemiller announced Thursday her intention to run for Georgia’s 66th District seat in the House of Representatives currently occupied by Rep. Virgil Fludd.

As much as anything, Biemiller’s decision to seek political office came after nearly a year as task force chairman. She founded the organization in response to what came to be hundreds of illnesses reported last spring and summer in both counties after residents breathed chemicals they first believed were harmless wild onions. The task force grew quickly, encompassing large areas of north and central Fayette County and the Fife and Oakley areas of south Fulton and some portions of Fairburn and Union City.

Union City held the second of several public meetings last week at Liberty Point Elementary School to get input on the South Fulton Parkway Corridor Study. When completed later this summer, the corridor study is expected to provide a template for municipal decisions through 2027 that will directly affect the 6.5-mile stretch of the parkway annexed by Union City last summer.

The June 19 vote in Chatt Hills will consist of one question: “Shall the act incorporating the City of Chattahoochee Hill Country in Fulton County and granting homestead exemption described therein be approved?”

It was a case of not having things in order when calling the police for assistance, especially if what the cops find leads to a long list of charges. That was the case May 29 when Fairburn Police arrested a man and woman after responding to a domestic call placed by Cambridge Faire Apartments resident Ronald Kendricks.

Big boxes beware. A unanimous recommendation Thursday by Tyrone Planning Commission would set the maximum size of retail buildings at 30,000 square feet. The recommendation came after a public hearing on an amendment to the town’s zoning ordinance that would limit the size of retail commercial buildings.

Another portion of the Olde Towne Tyrone development met with approval by the planning commission Thursday with a unanimous vote on the preliminary site plan for Lot 9, site of a 14,858 square-foot commercial building located along Tyrone-Palmetto Road near Swanson Road.

Big boxes beware. A unanimous recommendation Thursday by Tyrone Planning Commission would set the maximum size of retail buildings at 30,000 square feet.

Another portion of the Olde Towne Tyrone development met with approval by the planning commission Thursday with a unanimous vote on the preliminary site plan for Lot 9, site of a 14,858 square-foot commercial building located along Tyrone-Palmetto Road near Swanson Road.

Residents of north Fayette and south Fulton counties reported illnesses by the hundreds beginning in the spring last year and continuing into the fall after inhaling what they initially thought must have been wild onions growing in the area. They later learned they were breathing MOCAP wash water, a combination of the chemical odorant Propyl mercaptan and the organophospate pesticide MOCAP, or ethoprop, released from the Philip Services Corp. waste treatment plant on Ga. Highway 92 in Fairburn.

Questions are beginning to surface over the finances of U.S. Congressman David Scott (13th District) and whether sums apparently totaling hundreds of thousand of dollars were spent appropriately.

The possibility of a delayed vote on the future of the new City of South Fulton became reality earlier this week. A signature on the enabling legislation by Gov. Sonny Perdue did not provide the required amount of time needed to properly advertise the election. The vote might come as early as September.

They say they are ready for June 19. And that sentiment was easily evidenced May 19 as 200 Chattahoochee Hill Country residents heard the latest information on the June vote to accept the charter of the new city and exercise local control for the first time.

For the first time in its history, the town of Tyrone will consider a $6 million budget in June.
Town Manager Barry Amos said the first public hearing on the budget is June 7 and will not require a millage rate hike. But the town will not be able to rollback the rate, which is a fate many other local governments are also facing.

Putting unity back in community. Those words echoed by the ever-resilient Volunteer Coordinator and Librarian Judy Henderson and the tireless volunteers at Rico Cultural Center could not be more appropriate as the center celebrated its one year anniversary Tuesday. And for such a small community the past year has overflowed with enough activities to make heads spin.