New state law allows systems to shorten 180-day school year; 1 county goes for 160, with instructional hours staying the same

FY ’10 budget to spend nearly half of city’s property tax millage rate on leisure services

With a variety of passive parks, playgrounds, sports fields and more, it may come as little surprise that Peachtree City spends a significant amount of its budget on recreation.

For a county the size of Fayette the number of women and children receiving the multiple services provided by Promise Place in Fayetteville is large and getting larger.

Varsity, JV bring home 1st place honors

Special to The Citizen

The varsity and junior varsity McIntosh Football Cheerleading squads both placed first in competitions held during the Universal Cheerleading Association camp at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Next week is the one parents (and retailers) have been waiting for all summer long: Georgia’s sales tax holiday period, which runs from Thursday, July 30 through Sunday, Aug. 2.

Fayette County School Superintendent John DeCotis received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL) at its conference last week in Jekyll Island. DeCotis at the school board meeting Monday was recognized by Chairman Terri Smith.

The Fayette County School System has begun collecting revenues from the 1-cent sales tax initiative passed by voters in November. Comptroller Laura Brock told school board members Monday the system has received a total of $2,318,553 from May and June.

The Fayette County Commission Thursday night will consider a staff proposal to change the way an employee is credited upon retirement for accrued hours of sick leave.

Samuel Turner, 20, a Whitewater High School graduate, Class of 2007, was honored as one of two scholarship recipients of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Scholarship to serve an internship this summer working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Fayetteville City Council at the July 16 meeting adopted a $10.057 million general fund budget for Fiscal Year 2010 that represents a 2.67 percent decrease over the current year. The new budget will take effect Aug. 1.

A traffic stop by Fayetteville Police early Tuesday morning for loud music resulted in the arrest of a Jonesboro man wanted by the U.S. Army for desertion.

Newnan Police are searching for an armed gunman who held up the Bank of Georgia branch at 471 U.S. Highway 29 North Tuesday morning. An undetermined amount of money was taken in the heist.

Peachtree City resident Eldon A. Gresham has been ordered to appear in U.S. District Court in Newnan July 23 in connection with charges that he operated a multi-million dollar foreign currency (forex) Ponzi scheme said to have specifically targeted Christian investors. The order also pertains to relief defendants Werner Beiersdoerfer, Interveston Wines, LLC and Kirk Gresham.

The Fayette County Commission Thursday night will consider a staff proposal to change the way an employee is credited upon retirement for accrued hours of sick leave.

Youngsters from Starr’s Mill Academy join the cow crowd at Peachtree City’s Starr’s Mill Chick-fil-A July 10, and all were in the moo’d for a meal. The day-long activities were part of Cow Appreciation Day. Customers fully dressed as cows received a free meal. Photo/Ben Nelms.

Fayette County schools once again made the grade.

Fayette County School System is the only system in metro Atlanta with 100 percent of its schools making AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress)for six consecutive years, according to school system spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.

Despite the sluggish economy, Piedmont Fayette Hospital is pushing forward with its “comprehensive cancer center” plans, which will bring a host of cancer services in one area including radiation treatment, a first for Fayette County.

A house off Harp Road south of Fayetteville was heavily damaged after it caught fire early Monday morning with no one home — the result of an apparent lightning strike, fire officials said.

The Fayetteville City Council at the July 16 meeting will hear the second reading and will likely adopt the new $10.057 FY 2010 general fund budget that will take effect Aug. 1.

CRCT scores are in.

A total of 96.9 percent of Fayette County third-graders met or exceeded the standard for reading. Math scores were tallied at 91.1 percent, English at 95.6 percent, science at 93.4 percent and social studies at 93.4 percent.

Farewell reception Friday for adopted ‘alumni’ pets

Friday afternoon Fayette County Animal Control Director Miguel Abi-hassan is hoping to say goodbye to many of the animal shelter’s adopted alumni as he also says goodbye to the community.

Casey Kemmerer and Kelli Leatherman wanted to show their appreciation to their mother, Susan Kemmerer, a breast cancer survivor who has provided them with a lifetime of inspiration. They decided to enlist the assistance of motorcycle riders in the Bikers for BaZooms fundraiser that will be held Aug. 29. The event will benefit the Susan G. Komen for The Cure Foundation that helps raise funding dollars for breast cancer research.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on July 9 charged Eldon A. Gresham, d/b/a The Gresham Company, of Peachtree City, with operating a multi-million dollar foreign currency (forex) Ponzi scheme, specifically targeting persons of the Christian faith to invest in the scheme.

Peachtree City has once again won national recognition for being one of America’s best “small towns” as ranked by Money Magazine.

The Fayetteville City Council at the July 16 meeting will hear the second reading and is expected to vote on the new FY 2010 General Fund budget that will take effect August 1. The $10.057 million budget represents a 2.67 percent decrease over last year’s budget of $10.325 million.

Daniel Richard Hayes accused of failure to notify clients in auto crash case

An attorney who previously practiced in Fayette County has been disbarred from the profession by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Monday night discussion to center on potential projects for additional sales tax

County and city officials will be meeting Monday night at 7 p.m. in Fayetteville to consider potential projects for another special purpose local option sales tax.

Some victims from Peachtree City, Fayetteville and Newnan

Former attorney Steven H. Ballard, 53, of McDonough pled guilty today in federal district court to defrauding over a dozen victims in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee in a real estate investment scam, federal officials said.

Starr’s Mill Chick-fil-A restaurant to give away free meals to ‘cow-clad’ customers, golf carts this Friday

Fayette students scored well. Georgia Dept. of Education (DOE) has published the complete list of CRCT (Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests) for 2009.