McIntosh High School's

parking crunch may get some immediate relief if legislation to restore

golf cart driving privileges to teens under age 16 gains passage in the

state Senate, as expected.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland's

proposal to restore Peachtree City's ordinance allowing unlicensed

drivers to operate the carts was approved by the House on Thursday, 169-0.

It now goes to the state Senate for consideration, where passage is almost

assured.

The governor's office

has also indicated it won't hold up the bill, meaning the law change

could be in place before the session ends in March.

The ban on unlicensed drivers

was ordered in June after an appeals court ruling suggested the city's

ordinance unconstitutional. The crackdown affected hundreds of the city's

senior citizens, many of whom gave up driving cars in lieu of the slower,

more gentle golf carts.

But the more obvious impact

was seen at McIntosh High, where a 200-space parking lot designed exclusively

for the carts went from overflowing last spring to near empty when students

returned in the fall. Before the change, 15-year-olds with a learner's

permit could drive the electric vehicles around town unsupervised, and

many McIntosh ninth and tenth graders took advantage of that perk.

Principal Tracie Fleming said

last week the school is making plans to welcome the carts back

Since fall, most of the golf

cart spaces have been reopened to cars. Construction of the school's

new gym ate up more than 200 student car spaces, and though relief was

sought by expanding the faculty and visitor lot in front of the building,

McIntosh is still about 100 spaces short of what it had last year.

School system personnel, counting

on the usual number of students commuting to campus by golf cart, didn't

think the shortfall would have so great an impact.

Even though some spaces will

be restored when the gym is completed in December, Fleming said the campus

will still end up with less parking than it had before. But the students

have adjusted well, she said.

"They've been great,

really understanding," said Fleming, who marked her first anniversary

at the school this month. She came from Starr's Mill High School

last year, replacing Greg Stillions when he was appointed principal of

Whitewater High.

Fleming has more work cut out

for her once the gym is finished in about a year. This summer, workers

will tear out the school's kitchen and make it into more dining room

space, while a new kitchen takes over part of the present cafeteria. That

project will also take over the present chorus room, which will move to

the present band room, which moves to the black box theater behind the

vocational building.

It's all necessary, Fleming

explained, to bring McIntosh's facilities up to par with the other

high schools in the county. Opened in 1982, it's the county's

operating oldest high school facility.

Eventually, the present gym

will become a fine arts center but students likely won't take advantage

of that until fall 2006, when the present sophomores are seniors.

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