the 2000 holiday season rolls around, shoppers in

Newnan's historic downtown will notice a drastic change

in the town's look.

Noted

landscape architect Nimrod Long told the Coweta County

commissioners Tuesday evening that he was in the

preliminary stages of designing the streetscape for the

nine blocks of Newnan's downtown. The city received a $1

million grant to redo its downtown and the city of Newnan

is matching the grant with $1.1 million.

Since

Coweta County is the owner of the courthouse in the

middle of the design area, Long wanted the county's

assessment of the proposal.

Commission

Chairman Lawrence Nelms said the county wants to be

included in the proposal and said it would make sense to

have one designer for the entire project, instead of

hiring a separate one for the county's part of the

project.

Long

explained the design work was still in the preliminary

phases and no cost estimate had been established. He

expects construction to start in January, with the

project being completed by September.

His initial

vision for the area includes widening the sidewalks and

adding brick pavers. Long also believes an additional 15

percent capacity could be added for parking in the

downtown area simply by re-striping the existing parking

areas and creating parking spaces out of some unused

space in the downtown area.

When the

design is final, Long will make another presentation to

the commission and seek its approval. In the meantime, he

is soliciting suggestions for making the downtown even

more workable.

"We

want to make sure that both pedestrians and traffic can

move around the area," he said.

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