He's only been

on the job for a few days, but Barnard McMullen is feeling right at home

as the new city manager in Peachtree City.

Barnard, who

was officially awarded the $110,000-a-year position at the May 15 City

Council meeting, spent the first week touring facilitites and getting

to know city staff, he said. He's planning meet-and-greet sessions with

employees and managers in each of the city's departments as soon as they

can be arranged.

If his casual

rapport with other employees at City Hall one day earlier this week is

any indication, it has been a near seamless transition.

The 11-year

resident of the city, formally head of the General Services Department

in Fulton County, said his suspicions are confirmed: "Peachtree City

is a great place to live, and my experience so far is that it's a great

place to work, too."

McMullen said

his years in the military as a supply and logistics officer with the Air

Force, as well as his tenure managing all the people, buildings and vehicles

it takes to run Fulton County government, have prepared him well for Peachtree

City.

"One of

my personal traits is being able to get along with people, to avoid having

a personal agenda," he said this week in his neat, but bare, office

at City Hall. "I think of myself as a bridge builder. Those are the

truths that will help me in this job."

If just getting

to know the names and faces is his first short-time goal, his long-range

plans remain muddy because the city is entering an uncharted period of

its history.

A Kedron Village

resident, Bernard said he saw how the explosive growth of the last 10

years filled up that part of the city and edged it even closer to the

"build-out" cap on population growth defined by the city's master

plan.

He acknowledges

that the decisions the city makes now will have great impact for years

to come.

"You do

one of two things," he said, when a community reaches maturity, as

is Peachtree City. "You improve, or you die. You can't stay still.

But just because the population is reaching its physical limit, that doesn't

mean nothing is going to change."

Sewers, streets,

lights, buildings, recreation amenities --they will always need replacing

or improving, he said.

"All those

boring things a city government provides, if you don't continue to designate

money to them, they will start to deteriorate."