Weekly Update 10/23/2015

From Bob Schwartz, City Manager


Oxford College Community Classroom - The first of four Fall sessions for the Oxford College community classroom will be Tuesday, October 27 at 4 PM. Dr. Erin Tarver, assistant professor of philosophy, will present a program on “Philosophy and Sports Fandom." The program will be in the community room at City Hall. It lasts an hour. We have attached a copy of the flyer for all of the sessions.

Asbury Street Park - Our contractor has completed grinding up the brush on the lot in the southeast corner of the park which we just purchased. Here is a picture of the results. You can now see all the way through from both sides. Now that the last lot has been cleared we will ask Robert Jordan to complete the survey of the park. It's important to locate the trees so we can decide which trees to keep and which trees need to be removed.

More on Asbury Street Park - The first meeting of the Asbury St., Park citizens advisory committee was held on Tuesday, October 20. Cheryl Ready, chair, presided. Counting committee members and interested citizens, we had 19 people in attendance. We put together a first draft of amenities that we would like to be in the park. These will be further discussed along with several other issues at the next meeting of the committee which will be Tuesday, November 17 at 5 PM.

Even More on Asbury Street Park – We are working with the NEGRC (Northeast Georgia Regional Council) to submit a grant application to the Georgia Department of Transportation for a Roadside Enhancement and Beautification Council grant for the Emory Street side of the Asbury Street Park. This is similar to the grant the city received during the construction of the Turner maintenance building.

Chamber of Commerce Briefing – On Thursday Mayor Roseberry and I attended an economic briefing by economic development staff from Georgia Power and the Covington Newton County Chamber of Commerce held in the economic development offices of Georgia Power in Atlanta. We have attached a few of the slides from the briefing by Ralph Staffins from the Chamber of Commerce. It shows the areas in which the chamber will be concentrating in an effort to improve the economy of Newton County. Mayor Roseberry has asked Ralph Staffins to present a similar briefing at an upcoming City Council work session. We will schedule this soon.