The usually tranquil Senoia

City Council meeting turned contentious Monday night as the council questioned

the use of a new building being leased by the city.

The city recently entered into

a lease agreement for the former Coweta Journal building on Main Street.

Councilman Bill Wood said the building was slated to be used for expansion

of the police department, but recently learned the library would be moving

into the location.

"We have more of a priority

for a police department than a library," said City Councilman Bill

Wood.

Wood said the police department

had funding available to expand into the old newspaper office and more

planning needed to be done to determine if the library should be on Main

Street.

He mentioned a site on Clark

Street that currently houses the city's public works building as

a possible location for the library. The city is building a new public

works building, and Wood said a new library could possibly be built on

that site.

"The library doesn't

have the same compelling reason to be on Main Street," he said.

City Administrator Murray McAffee

argued that it was logical for the library to expand into the current

police station, but the problem was in the "cut-up" nature of

the rooms in the police station.

"They wouldn't be

able to put books in there," McAfee said.

Wood was upset with the whole

process involved and said the city had voted to first work on improving

the police station situation.

McAfee said everybody had been

contacted about the change in plans, but was met with a sharp retort.

"Nobody contacted me,"

said Councilman Pat Tunnell.

Acting mayor Robert Hannah

attempted to move the discussion into executive session, but was thwarted

executive session privileges.

Finally, Wood made a motion

to use the building for expansion of the police station, but the motion

tied 2-2. Wood and Councilman Robert Belisle supported it, while Tunnell

and Hannah voted against it.

With the tie vote, the outcome

was that no further work could be performed on the building until a more

comprehensive report was provided at the City Council's Dec. 1 meeting.