The Times-Herald
Vision 2010 Coweta weathering financial storm are down about eight percent from the original predictions, Palmer said. The collections for calendar year 2009 were down Coweta County’s government weathered three percent from 2008. the bruising financial year of 2009 with no The six year, one-percent sales tax was layoffs, no furloughs, no tax millage rate originally expected to bring in $127 million, increase, and no loss of county services. with Coweta County getting $88,582,000. And none are planned for 2010. The decline in SPLOST revenues may The county has cut its budget by not mean that some of the projects planned to replacing some employees who retired, be built with SPLOST won’t be. However, and not “back filling” positions when many projects are coming in under budget, someone is promoted. Employees aren’t so the hit might not be that bad. getting cost-of-living adjustments. Any reduction will likely come out of The county also spent about $1.4 million the transportation project list. The transof its multi-million dollar “fund balance.” portation projects were expected to take “We’re just continuing to try and work up 61 percent of the total SPLOST revsmarter,” said Patricia Palmer, Coweta’s enues. director of public affairs. And department Even with the depressed revenues, heads are also “out there thinking and try- Coweta is moving forward with several ing to find ways to cut costs,” she said. projects — and getting good deals on “They are continuing to look at new ways them. we can operate as efficiently and effectiveWork is nearing completion on ly as possible,” she said. Grantville’s new library. Senoia’s library “Even with things being tough, we’ve remains stalled as it has since been since maintained county services,” Palmer said. spring of 2008. “We’ve certainly been affected,” by the The new, state-of-the-art fire engines and apparatus funded through the $2 mileconomic downtown, however, she said. lion bond referendum approved in Nov. “The sales tax revenues have been flat, and declining in some cases,” Palmer said. 2008, are beginning to arrive. The county recently received several And “building permits are down, as they pumper trucks, and purchased a boat for have been the last couple of years.” water rescue. The three aerial platform In 2007, there were 645 new housing trucks are set to arrive April 20, said Chief permits issued, she said. In 2009, there Johnny Teeters of the Coweta County Fire were only 168. Department. However, permits for repairs, additions, The platform trucks will be like nothing and alterations are way up. In 2008, there Coweta County has ever had, Teeters said, were 394 of those permits. In 2009, there were “just over 2,000,” Palmer said. A good and the impact will be “unbelievable.” Coweta County Administrator Theron many of those permits were for new roofs related to last year’s hail storm, but not all. Gay reassured members of the Coweta Board of Health in early March that “We know that people are doing things to their homes now because they are staying “everything’s moving forward” with the construction of a new $1.7 million health in them longer,” she said. department facility on Hospital Road. Revenues from the Special Purpose The new health department building — Local Option Sales Tax are down slightly, but because that money is for capital proj- which is replacing the current facility on Jackson Street — is being funded through a ects, it doesn’t have any impact on opera$1.5 million contribution by the Coweta tions budgets. County Hospital Authority and $500,000 Currently, the total SPLOST collections
sarah@newnan.com
in stimulus funds from a Community Development Block Grant offered through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The new facility is expected to open this year. Coweta is also working on plans to expand and improve its recreation facilities. Field space has been at a premium for the last few years, especially for girls’ softball and soccer. Heavy rain made the situation even more critical. The Highway 34 East Whitlock Complex, the main site for both soccer and girls’ softball, is in a flood plain. Drainage has always been an issue, but with the heavy rains of the past year, the fields rarely dry out before another downpour. In summer 2010, the Coweta County Recreation Department will do a drainage improvement project at Whitlock. There are also plans to use property at the Coweta County Fairgrounds on Pine Road, and land adjacent to the Central Library in eastern Coweta, for practice fields. The Central Library fields won’t be done until late summer, but the Pine Road property should be available for use very soon. And after two years of construction, the $7.5 million restoration of the 1904 Coweta County Courthouse is set to be complete some time this summer. New windows were recently installed in the clock tower, replacing the plywood that has filled the spaces during replacement of all the copper work. When completed, the courthouse exterior will offer a somewhat different Court Square for downtown Newnan visitors. All of the mature trees around the courthouse have been removed, many because of health or structural problems. The area around the courthouse will be a lawn, with some bushes for accents and screening. The building will house Coweta County Probate Court and the Coweta County Welcome Center.
Photo by Jeffrey Leo
After two years of construction, the $7.5 million restoration of the 1904 Coweta County Courthouse is set to be complete some time this summer.
2009 year of transportation projects sarah@newnan.com The year 2009 was the year of road and transportation projects in Coweta County, with ongoing Interstate 85 construction, start of a new “dial-a-ride” transit system, and two long-overdue projects finally getting under way — widening of the Ga. Hwy. 34 Bypass and intersection improvements at Greenville Street and Spence Avenue in Newnan. Work on the replacement of the Greentop Road railroad overpass — closed since December 2008, is in its early stages. The bridge, interstate, and Greenville-Spence projects are set to be completed during 2010. Dec. 31 was supposed to bring the end of the Interstate 85 project, but 2009’s historical rainfall, a cold winter, and problems with concrete have delayed it. In early March, the stretch of I-85 south of Bullsboro Drive to the Meriwether County line was completed; but the new loop ramp on Bullsboro, and the interstate lanes north of Bullsboro, are still under construction. Last year’s historic rainfall, and a very cold winter, have slowed work on the interstate, as well as on the other projects. The $107 million rehabilitation project on Interstate 85 from Bullsboro Drive to Ga. Hwy. 74 in Fairburn began in late 2006, and was originally scheduled to be complete Oct. 31, 2009. That date was later changed to Jan. 1, 2010.
Photo by Jeffrey Leo
Georgia Department of Transportation contractors move dirt in the median area where a new loop entrance is being installed to Interstate 85 at Bullsboro Drive in Newnan. The interchange improvement is part of the multi-year widening and rehabilitation project of the interstate through Coweta County. A target for completion is now July 2010. The addition of the third lane from south of Bullsboro to Forest Road near the Meriwether County line began in early 2007. The project also includes the new half-loop ramp for motorists accessing I-85 northbound from Bullsboro Drive east-bound. One of the first parts of the project was the raising of three bridges — at
Lower Fayetteville Road, Poplar Road, and Ga. Hwy. 16. The bridges were jacked up to accommodate the higher pavement to be installed below. The contract for that project — totaling just over $218 million, was the Georgia Department of Transportation’s single largest contract ever.
Photo by Sarah Campbell
Dana Gantt disembarks from Coweta's new dial-a-ride transit system in early July 2009. Gantt, who is legally blind, scheduled the very first trip on the new system.
Lane shifts as the project construction proceeded were followed by serious crashes. Following a string of wrecks, the speed limit was lowered to 50 mph through the construction zone. Things calmed down as the project entered the home stretch. The speed limit was raised in southbound lanes south of Bullsboro in late 2009. Georgia DOT region spokeswoman Kimberly Larson said that now it looks like the new estimated date of completion is July 31, 2010, for lanes to be open to traffic. Widening of the Hwy. 34 Bypass, especially the Millard Farmer Industrial Boulevard portion between U.S. 29 and Ga. 34, is Coweta’s most long-awaited major road project. In March 2009, a month before the project was set to go out to bid, Newnan Mayor Keith Brady said he had long ago quit paying attention to announcements of the bypass construction “because they never were kept.” “They’ve pushed this date back countless times” over the 13 years that the city has tried to get the state road widened, Brady said. But this time, it did actually happen. Clearing work began in August, and utility relocation and grading are now under way. Plans call for the additional two lanes to, for the most part, be built in their entirely without affecting the current travel lanes. It won’t be your standard four-lane project, either. Plans call for the bypass to have bike lanes, an intersection detection system with closed circuit cameras, and a grass median. On a smaller project, the turning lanes and signal improvements at the intersection of Greenville Street and Spence Avenue south of downtown Newnan have been needed almost as long as the bypass widening. Greenville Street is a portion of U.S. 29 through Newnan and a route to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Central Educational Center. The city of Newnan has spent several years negotiating the right-of-way acquisition for the intersection. In spring of 2009, utility relocation began. Actual construction, which has been done by state DOT maintenance crews, began in mid-summer. Because the work is being done by DOT crews instead of a contractor, the crews have often been taken off the Greenville/ Spence intersection to work on other projects, including the interstate. Coweta’s “dial-a-ride” transit system began operation in July. The service, which operates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, provides doorto-door trips anywhere in Coweta for $3 each way. Rides must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance. To schedule trips, call 770-683-RIDE (7433). Coweta County continues to make slow but steady progress on a new I-85 interchange at Poplar Road, and the county prepared an “interchange justification report” for a new interchange that would be at the junction of an
extended Amlajack Boulevard and Hollz Parkway, a road off Hwy. 34 East across from the Summit healthplex. The interchange justification report for a new Interstate 85 interchange between Bullsboro Drive and Ga. Hwy. 154 has been completed and is now “with the state for review,” said Patricia Palmer, Coweta’s director of public affairs. Once the state completes its review, the report will be sent to the Federal Highway Administration. Getting approval is not a quick process. The IJR for the Poplar Road interchange was completed in 2005, but not approved until 2008. Hollz Parkway will be the location of a new park and ride lot for the Xpress Bus system. The Xpress Bus route, which currently leaves from Ashley Park, heads to downtown and midtown Atlanta five days a week. Buses leave six times each morning, from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and arrive seven times each evening, from 4 to 7 p.m. In January 2009, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, which operates the system, submitted plans for the 700-space lot on Hollz Parkway. Last summer, it was announced that the park and ride lot would receive $158,600 in federal stimulus funds. That money will fund information technology equipment for the lot. In June, GRTA Spokesman William Mecke said he expected the lot to open in late 2010. Several other projects are in the works for either construction or rightof-way acquisition in 2010 including improvements at Ga. Hwy. 154 and Lower Fayetteville Road; Hal Jones, Greentop and U.S. 29; and Roscoe Road, Jackson Street, and Sprayberry Road. Right-of-way acquisition is currently under way for the intersection improvement at Ga. Hwy. 154 and Hammock Road, the site of several accidents in which cars wound up down an embankment. Coweta will be paying approximately $1.5 million, which is just over half of the project cost. The rest will come from state and federal funds. Actual construction on the project, which will include a guardrail, “should begin at the end of the year or sometime in the spring of next year,” Palmer said. The timing depends on when the right-of-way is acquired and certified. Also in planning is extension of the Newnan Bypass from its current terminus at Turkey Creek Road southward to Hwy. 16 East. Plans are to four-lane Hwy. 16 from the bypass to U.S. 29, and to realign Pine Road so that Pine, Hwy. 16, and U.S. 29 will become a standard four-point intersection. Construction is planned for 2012 and 2013. The project will be funded with a combination of local, state, and federal funds. “The dollars are appropriated, so they are there,” Palmer said. The federal government has even kicked in an additional $1.4 million for right-of-way acquisition, which is usually a local responsibility. “That lets us keep our local money for other projects,” she said.