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INSIDE: Chiefs, PatriotslVin Baseball Regions, A8
VOL. 151.NO. 17
WEDNESDAY, April 26, 2023
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INSIDE: Tyrone Native Receives Leadership Award at Maryville College, A6
INSIDE: Southern Conservation Trust Hosts Earth Day 2023, B8
Council Approves Fayetteville Performing Arts Center MOU
Sydney Spencer
News Reporter
sspencer@fayette-news.net
Fayetteville City Council
members unanimously au
thorized Mayor Ed Johnson
to execute a resolution of a
memorandum of under
standing between the city and
Trilith, stating that Trilith’s
incoming performing arts
center within Trilith Live will
become Fayetteville Perform
ing Arts Center at Trilith, a
not-for-profit organization.
Fayetteville City Manager
Ray Gibson presented the
request of the performing
arts center MOU to board
members.
“This is definitely an ex
citing project. As you all are
aware, Trilith is in the pro
cess of developing Trilith
Live, which will include a per
forming arts center, an
atrium area, a civic plaza,
parking garage, two live au
dience stages, a cinema, and
an office building,” Gibson
informed.
“We’ve all talked about a
performing arts center. We
need that element in our
community,” explained Gib
son. “We’ve toured different
performing arts centers on
some of the trips we went on.
Those were provided typi
cally by city government, so
in this case we’re asking
council tonight to approve a
resolution of a memorandum
of understanding between
the city and the Fayetteville
Performing Arts Center at
Trilith.”
According to Gibson, the
MOU simply states that the
Fayetteville Performing Arts
Center would be a not-for-
profit corporation.
Council authorized
Mayor Ed Johnson to execute
the MOU since he will serve
as incorporator of the per
forming arts center on behalf
of Fayetteville. Johnson and
Gibson will serve as founding
board members to represent
the city’s interest and the for
mation of the not-for-profit
organization that will fund
and operate the center.
One-time
Property
Tax Relief
Grant Refund
In the next few weeks,
Fayette County property
owners will receive assess
ment notices reflecting the
value placed on their prop
erties for ad valorem tax
purposes. What will not be
shown on these notices is a
property tax credit of ap
proximately $500 on home
steaded properties,
according to county offi
cials.
Georgia Gov. Brian
Kemp signed into law on
March 13 a one-time prop
erty tax relief grant to re
fund $950 million in
property tax credits back to
homestead owners. This will
be accomplished by reduc
ing the assessed value of
Georgia homesteads by
$18,000.
The actual amount of the
tax credit is determined by
applying the county’s mil-
lage rate to the $18,000 re
duction in assessed value,
according to a press release
by county commissioners.
For example, using the
2022 unincorporated
county millage rate of
26.964 mills (the Property
Tax Relief Grant applies to
all millage rates except bond
millage rates and tax alloca
tion district millage rates)
the credit amount would be
$485-35 ($18,000 x
26.964/1000).
The total amount of the
credit will be shown on the
tax bill as “HTRG Credit”
with a notation that it is the
result of homeowner tax re
lief enacted by the governor
See Tax Relief, A6
PTC Councilman Holland (second from left) and PTC Mayor Kim Learnard (second from right)
at the ribbon cutting event. Courtesy of Peachtree City
PTC Celebrates Opening
of Disc Golf Course
Fayetteville Council
Approves Resolution for
COPS Grant Application
Leah Banks
Investigative Reporter
leah@fayette-news.net
PEACHTREE CITY -
On April 15, the Peachtree
City Parks and Recreation
Department, along with city
officials, celebrated the
opening of its most recently
redesigned disc golf course,
located at 204 Willowbend
Road in Peachtree City.
For professional disc gol
fer Kevin McCoy, the rede
sign was long overdue.
“This course has been
here -1 don’t even know how
long, but I’m guessing 20-
plus years,” McCoy said.
Given the length of time
and the most recent innova
tions that have occurred in
the sport, it was McCoy’s un
derstanding that it was time
for the course to undergo a
Leah Banks
Investigative Reporter
leah@fayette-news.net
TYRONE — In the April
17 special called meeting for
the Town of Tyrone’s Down
town Development Au
thority, the board continued
its discussion on the request
for qualifications for 935 Se-
noia Road.
The topic of the RFQ has
been discussed in recent
DDA meetings, and for As-
minor facelift to promote
safety for golf cart drivers
and citizens using the course
for fun.
“The discs are getting
much faster, and so we
wanted to build the course a
little safer than it was,”
McCoy said. “With the cart
path flying through here and
everything, we wanted to try
to make sure that there’s not
a bunch of discs flung out
and hitting carts and stuff.”
The redesigning process
brought about more chal
lenges relating to the logis
tics of the course, according
to McCoy.
“The original nine
[holes] out here were just
out in the open and we have
five holes in the woods,
which makes shots a lot
more technical. The course
is not a lot longer. Probably
sistant Town Manager
Philip Trocquet, the conver
sation was soon approach
ing an end.
The proposed RFQ al
lows for the Tyrone DDA to
solicit a development part
ner to lease and redevelop
Fayette County Fire Station
3, a 1.1-acre property, into a
restaurant with an estab
lished business. This pro
posed project will further
promote and revitalize eco
nomic development oppor-
pretty similar distance-wise,
but definitely a lot more
technical and a lot more
challenging,” McCoy said.
McCoy says he hopes the
redesign is one that allows
people to get their feet wet in
the sport of disc golf while
also considering the pos
sibility of a budding sports
career.
“Once they get here and
they play it more and more
and get really good here,
they can graduate to the
bigger courses - The 18-hole
courses and the tourna
ment-level courses. So, we
kind of want this to be kind
of a kickstart to the disc golf
career,” McCoy said.
Parking near the course
can be found at Peachtree
City City Hall or at All Chil
dren’s Playground, which
also has restroom facilities.
tunities in the Town Center
District, according to offi
cials.
“I know that we’ve gone
through the rough draft and
different elements of it, so
unless you want me to focus
on anything in particular,
I’d like to focus on two items
that are of importance: the
schedule and the evaluation
factors,” Trocquet said.
“So, a month from now,
See Tyrone DDA, A6
Sydney Spencer
News Reporter
sspencer@fayette-news.net
Fayetteville City Council
unanimously approved staff
to apply for the Department
of Justice COPS Grant, fol
lowing request from Fay
etteville Police Chief Scott
Gray.
“As you know, when we
met earlier this year to start
pre-planning for the budget
cycle, the police department
and I identified a need for
10 new police officers based
on our growth, both in pop
ulation and in commercial
and residential establish
ments,” explained Chief
Gray.
“It is not at all an en
compassing grant that
would require us to have
Leah Banks
Investigative Reporter
leah@fayette-news.net
PEACHTREE CITY -
During the April 20
Peachtree City Council
meeting, Assistant City
Manager Justin Strick
land continued the con
versation on possible
updates to the “depart
ments ordinance,” which
were unanimously ap
proved and combine var
ious public service
departments into two
main departments.
Ordinance 1208 high
lights the different depart
ments within Peachtree
City government and how
each one is structured.
The initial conversation
on updates to this ordi
nance began following ap
proval of a compensation
plan earlier in April.
“Some of the things we
were recommending was
to dissolve the public
services division and to
create public works divi
sion and an engineering
services division with the
various departments of
public services going to
each of those,” Strickland
some of the money at stake.
It is a five-year grant com
mitment to employ these of
ficers and recruit for one
year,” Gray continued.
“After three years, the grant
would go away and the
money would go away, but
we would be required to
keep the police officers for
at least five years.”
To conclude his presen
tation, Gray summarized
the budget for the grant and
how the needs for it were
identified.
“As you know, when we
went through the process of
looking at the next budget,
we identified those needs
and we’re continuously
looking for additional fund
ing sources to help us gain
those officers, so that’s what
we’ll be seeking,” said Gray.
said. “So, this ordinance
update creates those two
divisions and defines the
departments within
them.”
Strickland explained
that it also “cleans up fi
nancial services,” which
“changes to financial and
administrative services.”
“It adds the GIS de
partment into that divi
sion because, since we’ve
updated this ordinance,
we’ve added a GIS depart
ment,” Strickland said.
When the brief recap
of updates was completed,
Peachtree City Mayor Kim
Learnard opened the floor
for comments from the
council, with Councilman
Clint Holland leading the
discussion.
“Having read this
thing over the past week,
it came out nice and
clean,” Holland said. “I
can see the organizational
changes well-structured
in there and appreciate
the work that you put in
so quickly from the sixth
and here we are at the
next meeting. You got it
all done. So, kudos to
you.”
lyrone DDA Discusses RFQ
in Special Called Meeting
PTC Council Discusses
Department Ordinance
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