Newnan hires firm that will oversee public safety project
By JOHN A. WINTERSjohn@newnan.com
The Newnan City Council has awarded a contract for an “owner representative” to oversee construction of the city’s planned multi-million dollar public safety building.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, council set dates for two meetings: one a meeting with the Coweta County Board of Commissioners to set rates for dividing the Local Option Sales Tax; the second a workshop to discuss proposals for the city’s new sanitation contractor.
City Manager Cleatus Phillips told council members there would be “no more than four sitesâ ¦ We will be presenting the sites very shortly and getting the shortlist to council for their approval.”
A five-person committee recommended CPS, and Phillips told council members the company has done 15 or so such projects on public safety facilities and courthouses in the past five years.
In other action Tuesday:
• It was announced that council will hold a workshop on Aug. 23 at 5:30 p.m. to review bids from three companies hoping to take over the city’s sanitation services.
• Another meeting was set to meet with county commissioners to negotiate the city’s new percentage from the permanent Local Option Sales Tax — a one-cent sales tax. That meeting on LOST will be Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. at the county commission meeting room.
Currently, the city gets 21.89 percent of the tax. The tax distribution among the county and its municipalities must be re-negotiated every 10 years after the census comes out and the new rate becomes effective in January 2013.
It’s a big issue because the percentage rate for each government will last for 10 years. Newnan is proposing it receive 25.95 percent in 2013, 28.57 percent in 2014, and 31.19 percent in years 2015 thru 2022, according to Phillips.
Over the past few years, the city has received: $4.616 million in 2008; $3.860 million in 2009; $4.187 million in 2010; and $4.367 million in 2011 from the tax.
• The council referred to the city’s Planning Commission a recommendation on a request by Prime Ventures Corp. and AT&T for a zoning change for property currently zoned only for self-storage facilities. The companies want to amend the zoning ordinance to allow telecommunications towers. The property in question is located at 931 Lower Fayetteville Road.
The request is only for the rezoning; a request to actually build a tower would be a separate process.
• Approved was a zoning request to allow physical instruction facilities in areas zoned light and heavy industrial. Currently, those types of facilities are not allowed in those districts.
The city’s Planning Commission has recommended approval of the request, which came from Walt Sholar on behalf of Centerfield Baseball Academy. Sholar contended the facility he needed would require a warehouse, typically located in industrial districts and not in retail zoning.
• Approved was a request from Stalwart Films LLC to film scenes for “The Walking Dead” around Caldwell Tanks on East Broad Street on Aug. 9 and 10.
• Approved was a request pending county commission approval as well to hold a Charity 5K Road Race to benefit Meals on Wheels of Coweta on Oct. 10, starting at 7:30 a.m. Part of the race activities would be on county property.
