Coweta

County and municipal officials moved closer this week to

hammering out a final agreement on House Bill 489 that

will try to put an end to duplication of services.

During a

meeting Monday night, officials discussed the three areas

of disagreement still on the table: library funding,

funding of the Coweta County Convention and Visitors'

Bureau and the fire tax district.

While

officials learned that nothing could be done with the

fire tax since the public had vote on the issue, debate

centered around the library and the visitors' bureau.

City of

Newnan officials would like too see the county pay more

for funding the library, county administrator Theron Gay

believes the issue is not covered under HB 489.

"This

was an existing contract between the county and the city

before the bill passed," he said.

Similarly,

the county would like to see the cities kick in a few

more dollars to fund the visitors' bureau since many of

the visitors are guided to many of the cities' historic

attractions.

Gay pointed

out to the municipalities that although there is a

hotel-motel tax to help fund the bureau, the county

regularly kicks in funds from its general fund budget to

keep the center running like it should and keep bringing

visitors into the county.

City and

county officials are now leaning to a compromise on the

two contentious issue and one report has Newnan's leaders

ready to compromise if the county will strengthen its

sign and landscape ordinances for property that borders

city property.

While Gay

has not received any official contact from Newnan's

leaders, he's confidant a compromise can be worked out by

the Oct. 31 deadline for submitting an agreement to the

Department of Community Affairs for approval.

Since DCA

needs time to review the plans, Gay said everything needs

to be resolved by Sept. 30.

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