The Coweta

County Commission decided Tuesday night to rejoin the

Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center after

being "thrown out" of the organization last

month.

The long,

simmering fight between Coweta County and the

Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center came to a

head last month when the board members of the planning

agency voted to kick Coweta County and the city of

LaGrange out of the organization.

The board

voted to kick out and not allow members to vote who were

not current with their dues. Coweta County has withheld

nearly $41,000 in 1999 dues from the organization in a

protest over the city of LaGrange not paying dues for the

last four years.

"They

[LaGrange] said they're current because they've paid dues

for 1999, but they still owe for 1996, 1997 and

1998," said Commissioner Vernon "Mutt"

Hunter who attended the board meeting.

Since

LaGrange has now been removed from the organization and

can't receive any services from the planning group unless

the services are state-mandated, Hunter asked the county

to now pay its back dues and get back in the

organization.

During

Tuesday night's meeting, county administrator Theron Gay

explained that Coweta County was paying for the bulk of

the increase in the center's yearly budget.

"Since

1994, the group's yearly fees have increased $29,000 a

year from governments because of population increases.

Coweta County is paying $17,000 of that increase,"

Gay said.

Commissioner

Robert Wood said the county had grown the fastest, but

had also hired more staff so they were not using the

services of the planning agency like they used to.

"We

need to assess the services to each county," he

said.

The county

currently pays .85 for each citizen to the organization,

and Commissioner Vernon "Mutt" Hunter said that

issue needs to be changed.

"We

set it up that way years ago, and we can change it,"

he said.

The main

problem Hunter has with the increased dues is that Coweta

County is essentially contributing money for Chatt.-Flint

to find matching grants for other counties and none of

the money is coming back to the county.

The county

voted to send Commissioner Jim McGuffey back to the next

meeting and pay the dues, but also make Coweta County's

feelings known to the other agencies.