In the next couple of years, its conceivable that some Fayette County offices could migrate to the currently unfinished third floor of the county’s justice center.

Doing so would empty the county’s Stonewall Avenue government offices, which the county could then put on the market, eventually putting the downtown property back on the tax rolls, county officials were told last week.

The building has a current-day commercial value of $6 million, according to a commercial appraiser, said County Administrator Jack Krakeel. Read More»

The Coweta County Commission will hold a public hearing April 17 on a proposal aimed at expanding the number of events held per year on the Powers Crossroads Festival property in west Coweta County.

The public hearing will include the request to rezone the 60.35-acre property at Ga. Highway 34 and Thomas Powers Road from Rural Conservation (RC) and Old Commercial (C) to RC-SUP (Rural Conservation-Special Use Permit) and C-SUP (Commercial-Special Use Permit). If successful, the site will become the home for four major events per year and several minor events each month. Read More»

Enough is enough. That’s what Coweta County commissioners thought April 3 when they voted unanimously to replace the X-ray inspection system at the Coweta County Justice Center after it recently experienced multiple failures. The low bid for the replacement system was nearly $42,000.

County IT Director Michael Fouts in an April 3 letter said the AutoClear system purchased in 2006 had experienced multiple failures in the past month, adding his recommendation that the unit be replaced. Read More»

The news could hardly be worse for the tax levying entities in Fayette County. Figures from the Fayette County Tax Assessor’s Office show a 10.39 percent decrease in the value of real property for the 2012 tax digest. That translates into a drop of nearly $500 million in property value — mostly the same property but worth a lot less.

That means fewer tax dollars can be collected at current tax rates. Read More»