Coweta-Fayette

EMC purchases 73-acre tract for new corporate headquarters

Coweta-Fayette

Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) President and CEO Michael Whiteside

announced the cooperative's purchase of a 73-acre tract of land in North

Coweta County. The utility company will construct its multi-story corporate

headquarters and operations facility just off Exit 56 at the corner of

Weldon and Collinsworth Roads.

"Over

the past 12 months, our board of directors has reviewed not only the traffic

congestion surrounding our current offices, but also future growth needs,"

stated Whiteside.

"The board

hired a consulting firm to evaluate our current and future site requirements

to meet the needs of our ever-growing cooperative. This study indicated

that the cooperative needed to double its office space to meet our service

area needs by the year 2010."

The EMC's corporate

offices are now located on 20 acres at the intersection of US Highway

29 and the GA Highway 34 By-pass in Newnan. This site and present facilities

were begun in 1952.

As Atlanta's

metro south population has grown, the utility company has expanded to

meet the increasing need for electricity.

Whiteside went

on to say that the EMC had investigated over a dozen sites within the

company's service area, but that none had suited all requirements as well

as the Weldon Road property.

While plans

for a new facility required at least 50 acres, this one offered excellent

north-south and east-west access to the service area. Whiteside pointed

out that, "Being only 150 yards from the Interstate will increase

our ability to respond quickly when outages occur."

Serving Coweta,

Fayette, Heard, Meriwether and portions of Clayton, South Fulton and Spalding

Counties, access is critical as the population increases, according to

a construction architect's preliminary report in 2000.

"Expanding

at our present site would require a $5-to-6 million investment; that investment

would not be recoverable," he reiterated. Unlike a privately owned

utility, the EMC is owned by its member/customers, so accountability for

expenditures is met by its board of directors, all of whom are members

themselves.

Groundbreaking

for the new facility is expected within the next year; selection of an

architectural team and construction company will take several months,

as will the final plans. Parks & Mottola Realtors agent Lisle Bowers

negotiated the land purchase for Coweta-Fayette EMC. The real estate firm

is located in Newnan.

The utility

company currently employs over 155 people. In order to serve 92,000 expected

members in the year 2010, employment could increase by about 115 people.

Whiteside projects that the project will have a significant economic impact

within the region on completion.

Opening for

business in 1947, Coweta-Fayette EMC will celebrate its 55 th

anniversary in 2002. The utility's founding director, Floy Farr, who is

still active on the board, remembers delivering electricity during the

first year to 700 homes; today, the company services over 59,000 residential,

commercial and industrial meters.

"We look

forward to continuing to meet our members' needs, maintaining the lowest

possible costs and to responding quickly," concluded Whiteside, adding

that the new facility would ensure the company's ability to do so.