Vision 2011 The Times-Herald
1E — Sunday, March 27, 2011
NEW CITY MANAGER TAKES HELM
Newnan in good financial shape By ELIZABETH MELVILLE elizabeth@newnan.com The city of Newnan remains in good financial shape — according to Mayor Keith Brady — and city leaders have managed it with careful budget planning and prudent spending. “We still have no long-term debt and a healthy unallocated reserve balance in the bank,” said Brady. “We were fortunate last year not to have to lay off or furlough anyone. Through attrition we cut back on a few positions, but none in public safety. We do not anticipate any cutbacks.” The new manager of the city’s operations is Cleatus Phillips, the city’s former community development director. Phillips took the helm this year from longtime City Manager Richard A. Bolin.
“Cleatus is doing great — he hit the ground running,” said Brady. The mayor attributes the seamless transition of leadership to the city’s succession plan. Brady said that the Newnan C i t y Council identified Phillips as a potential candidate for city manager and “put him under the microscope for Phillips several years.” “He’s already proven his worth,” said Brady. “He’s been providing council with a lot of information, managing projects and handling crises. He’s very
good at communicating.” For now, Phillips’ former position remains budgeted for, but the city has no immediate plans to fill it, according to the mayor. According to Phillips, the city, overall, had a good budget year in 2010. They collected 102 percent of their revenue and spent 94 percent of their projected expenditures. The city’s budget was approximately $16.4 million for 2010. They collected nearly $16.8 million and spent slightly more than $15.3 million. As a contingency, council has a policy requiring that half of the general fund — approximately $8 million — be reserved. The remaining balance is unrestricted. A lot of variables will affect this year’s budget, including sales taxes, which have yet to stabilize so the city can get an accurate prediction of how
much revenue they will generate, according to Phillips. “We can’t put a trend from month to month,” said Phillips. “But it improved in 2010 over 2009.” Brady added that, from year to year, sales tax revenues have come in near what was budgeted. The revenues on the permanent Local Option Sales Tax and the most recent voterapproved city-county Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax were down earlier this year but have since been coming back up. Brady says that tax revenues for the city are always going to track about a month behind the state. Also this year, the city has been pleasantly surprised to be taking in more revenue than expected in franchise checks from utilities Coweta-Fayette EMC and Georgia Power. The
mayor also said he’s seeing “a little bit of an uptick in the market from the real estate side.” Still, new construction remains nearly nonexistent and foreclosures are continuing to impact the price of properties in the market, according to Brady. Newnan is seeing an increase in renovation permits while people are opting to be frugal and hold on to their homes while they wait for the housing market to rebound. Brady said he’s seeing families grow tired of waiting and wade into the housing market in hopes that any loss they may incur during the selling process might be recouped in the buying process. Property taxes are “right in line with what we thought,” according to Brady. The ad valorem tax has not decreased,
although the city anticipates it will in the next year or two. Since the city hasn’t had money for capital expenditures, it’s been proceeding with projects that already have allocated funding through the SPLOST. “We’re doing all the right things when it comes to operations and management,” said Brady. “We’re keeping the budget intact. This is not the time to go into debt.” The city has SPLOST funds allocated to add parking downtown — although the mayor is not yet sure how that’s going to be spent or what that project will look like. The city’s major SPLOST project is the bid opening on the proposed conference center on Lower Fayetteville Road on property adjacent to the
See NEWNAN, page 7E
New leadership in Grantville From STAFF REPORTS news@newnan.com
Photo by Jeff Bishop
New Grantville City Manager Mike Renshaw, right, takes his oath from Grantville City Attorney Mark Mitchell, left, in December 2010.
Photo by Jeff Bishop
Clyburn Halley Jr. was recently hired as Grantville’s new police chief.
Photo by Jeffrey Leo
Grantville has a new Downtown Development Authority, and the DDA has been looking at project ideas, including a beautification program. Members are taking some cues from nearby Hogansville, where there has been a DDA working for 10 years, said Robert Allen, Grantville DDA director.
Grantville’s electric department moved into the 21st century this spring as the entire town’s electric grid was shut off one recent Saturday morning in order to upgrade to a new stateof-the-art electric system. “If we as a city are going to provide electricity for the community, it must be first-class and competitive,” said Grantville Mayor Jim Sells as the city was powered down. “We have answered that call.” Grantville upgraded from an antiquated 4KV system to a state-of-the-art 12KV system. The new system will improve safety and efficiency, and allow Grantville to accept new customers, both large and small, Sells said. To facilitate the upgrade, most of the town was completely without power between 8:30 a.m. until 4 in the afternoon during the changeover. “It is a relief to have this upgrade complete,” said Sells. “We needed it to keep our prices in line with other utilities and also to take on the new loads that will be required in Grantville’s growing future.” It’s just one of the w a y s Grantville is moving into Sells the future with its new leadership team in place. Jim Sells was recently elected mayor, Mike Renshaw was hired as the new city manager, and Clyburn Halley Jr. as police chief. The town has a new library facility built by Coweta County adjacent to the new Little League ball park, and Coweta County Fire Department is in the midst of renovating Fire Station 11 on Colley Street in Grantville. It is the third of the county’s older fire stations to be upgraded. The project is funded by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. A draw to Grantville is the
See GRANTVILLE, page 6E
Photo by Sarah Campbell
Phase two of Senoia’s streetscapes project brought planted bump-outs with benches. Several downtown shops have added flair to the landscape islands as well with some of their merchandise.
Senoia keeping up pace in 2011 By SARAH FAY CAMPBELL sarah@newnan.com It’s been a busy year for Senoia. A major streetscapes project brought beautiful downtown improvements, a multi-use path connecting the Rockaway Road subdivisions to downtown was built and has been well-received, the city’s two major traffic headaches were eliminated, and the longawaited new police station and municipal courtroom opened on Howard Road. Senoia won’t be slowing down much in 2011. It appears this will be the year construction finally begins on the new Senoia Area Library. The city is pursuing several annexations along Hwy. 16 at the western city limits, including the current site of Coweta Charter Academy. Work has just begun on a parks and recreation master plan, and Senoia is eyeing a major renovation to city hall. Now that city hall no longer needs to be used for court or city council or other meetings, plans are to greatly increase office space and improve restrooms. There will still be a public area in the building. City Administrator Richard Ferry said he’s recently started contacting the architects in
Photo by Sarah Campbell
Construction of the intersection improvements at Georgia Highway 16/Main Street and Luther Bailey Road in Senoia was completed in late 2010. The project consisted of installing turn lanes at all four points on the intersection south of downtown Senoia and a traffic light.
order to get proposals. Hopes are to be done by fall or winter. Unlike most of Senoia’s recent improvements, paid for through Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds, impact fees or grants, the city hall renovations will be paid for out of the city’s general fund. The project had originally been cut from the 2011 budget, but based on recent revenues and future projections, “I think we’ll be able to put it back in,” Ferry said. The renovations wouldn’t be possible, of course, without the new police and courts complex. City hall was unsuited to holding city court. It could only hold 40 people. “So people
stood in line on the street until they were called,” Ferry said. “The worst part was, you couldn’t conduct city business during those days, two days a month.” City residents who might be stopping buy to pay a water bill or get information would instead walk into a court hearing. The new court facility is working out well, Ferry said, though the parking lot might end up being a bit small. City council and planning commission meetings have more recently moved to the
See SENOIA, page 7E
Sharpsburg looks to grow through annexation By SARAH FAY CAMPBELL
sarah@newnan.com The tiny town of Sharpsburg is perched on the cusp of real growth, and officials are in the midst of making improvements to the town. An annexation that would
bring possible grocery stores, sit-down restaurants and higher-density residential development — and some sewer services — is in the works. But it — like Sharpsburg’s previous plan to annex Pathway Development-owned property west of town — may be
thwarted by Coweta County. Coweta County has so far withheld permission for the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority to serve the proposed development, which would be located on land along Hwy. 16, with water. That’s despite the fact the
authority currently has an expensive overabundance of water. A larger version of the proposed development, known as Oakhall Village, was turned down by the Coweta County Board of Commissioners in November 2009.
Property owners — Thompson and Charlotte Lewis, Frank Jr. and John Neely, and Oakhall properties — filed suit a month later. Last summer, Sharpsburg began annexation procedures on the property. The original version of
Oakhall Village totaled 186 acres, including 55.15 acres of commercial, and 208 homes. Plans called for 10 commercial buildings with a 90,000-squarefoot “anchor” and other buildings ranging from 5,000 to
See SHARPSBURG, page 4E