Fulton County

Commissioner Bill Edwards is eager to make sure the future leaders of

Fulton County are well trained.

During the

last weekend of March, Edwards, along with 60 other residents, headed

to Palmetto for a retreat weekend.

The event was

funded by an unnamed corporate sponsor and was the initial meeting for

Edwards' Leadership Tomorrow program.

"The whole

weekend went really fabulously," said Edwards. "This is an opportunity

to train new people in our community for leadership roles," he said.

Edwards wants

to work with all groups in the county, including local government, police

and schools, to give tomorrow's leaders an overall picture of Fulton County.

"We want

to work to create a better quality of life," he said.

Some of the

issues the group will focus on include race relations, economic development

and education, he added.

The retreat

was facilitated by Georgia Power Company, and Edwards found out that people

really spoke their minds after the sessions had concluded and they were

in a more informal setting.

Edwards said

he heard many interesting comments about race relations and said he plans

to build on those, by including all nationalities in future discussions.

"We're

one of the most diverse communities around. We need to work hard to include

Hispanics and Asians in our discussions," he said.

Edwards and

Fulton County officials plan to take all this information and pore over

it and report back to the group.