City of Tallapoosa Year in Review 2022

Mayor and Council

• Mayor and council met for 26 city council meetings covering over 29.75 hours of public discussion in 2022.

Business Licenses

• 182 licenses were issued for 2022 and of those 13 were new businesses.

Special note: In 2022, the City of Tallapoosa had one doctor open an office in Tallapoosa. In addition, Whirlwind Industry opened a business here. Tallapoosa also saw three industries expand their operations: Barco, Custom Beverage, and Hexpol.

Beer and Wine Licenses

• 17 licenses were issued for 2022 and of those 1 was a new license.

Building Permits

• 60 permits were issued for 2022 (Double the number issued in 2021.)

Building Inspections

• 90 inspections had been conducted in 2022.

Code Enforcement

• 68 warnings were issued and of those, all resulted in citations. (Note: 49 issued in 2021.)

Utility Bills

• The City of Tallapoosa serves an average of 1,773 customers with gas, water/sewer, and sanitation. Of that number, 99.87% of paying customers with only a .13% of bad debt incurred for 2022.

Special Ballot/Election

• TSPLOST was renewed in the Spring of 2022 and the Alcohol referendum was successfully passed in the November election. New ordinances were created and instituted to accommodate the referendum.

Marketing/Communications

• Website Analytics – In 2022, there were 34,739 users to the website and 48,211 sessions. Of those 26,540 were engaged in sessions. Users spent an average of 39 seconds per session. 61% percent of the searches were organic; 31% were direct searches; 7% were organic social and 1% were referrals from other sites.
• Social Media – The City of Tallapoosa began a Facebook page in May 2022. It currently has 1,372 followers. Of those followers, 77% are female; 23% are men; the largest age represented is 35-44 years of age; 40% are from Tallapoosa. The largest post reach engagement audience in the last 90 days was 8,045 for a Trick or Treat post in October. A Hat Roberts thank you post had the largest engagement of any post in the last 90 days with 796.
• Newsletter – The City of Tallapoosa began a short 1-page front and back newsletter mailed out with utility bills in 2022 that was well received. Newsletter content included city events, action summaries from council meetings, and reminders and updates on city services and projects.

Events with City of Tallapoosa Oversight

Tallapoosa Citywide Cleanup
City Wide Yard
Sale (Spring)
Dogwood Festival
4th of July Celebration
Summer Concert Series: Possum Pickins
Hat Roberts Chili Cook-Off
City Wide Yard Sale (Fall)
Halloween in Tallapoosa
Christmas in Possum Snout
Lighting of Christmas Tree
Christmas Parade of Lights
Pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus
Possum Drop (2-day event)

Miscellaneous

• New Joint Comprehensive Plan for Haralson County that included Tallapoosa and submitted to the Department of Community Affairs
• New Christmas decorations built by the city and installed for the 2022 holiday season.
• Mayor Bridges was inducted into the GMA Hall of Fame in 2022 posthumously.
• Approved new millage rate of 6.906 (rollback rate)
• Adopted the LOST agreement
• Repairs were done to the city hall building (windows repaired and painted, columns repaired, and outside trim painted, new HVAC) Renovations and repairs will continue into 2023.
• Councilmember Raymond Ballew passed away and was mourned by the city.

Recreation Department

• 2 full-time employees in the recreation department
• Swimming pool was renovated and opened for summer. Provided certified lifeguard training for personnel.
• City Gym – new backboards and padding installed; new gym floors with outlining for various sports (basketball, pickleball, and volleyball) and new lighting, bleachers repaired, and new adjustable goals installed.
• Baseball fields- new scoreboards installed and repaired all fencing and backstops as well as new safety backs on bleachers at fields.
• New football equipment for the season
• Recreation department office was renovated with new flooring, office furniture, and painted walls. Internet was installed.

Tally Mountain Golf Course

• New rates were instituted in May of 2022 and the application was redesigned. Reinstituted the application fee for new members. Currently, there are 109 members of the golf course.
• Clubhouse was renovated.
• Caretaker’s house was renovated.
• New equipment shed built.
• New artificial turf installed for the driving range.
• All sprinklers changed and now operated by Bluetooth.
• New superintendent hired to manage course.
• Installed a new emergency exit along the train track for the golf course.
• Purchased 10 new golf carts for the golf course.

Police Department

• New police department building purchased and renovated with ARPA funds.
• New police department vehicles purchased.
• New phone system
• The Police Department answered 6,319 calls, issued 1,375 citations and collected $231,664.10 in fines/fees.

Sewer Department

• Corey Davis was promoted after attaining his Class 2 operator status
• Sewer project completed on Highway 100 (Chapel West to Arbacoochee Road)

Downtown Development Authority

• Met with outside consultants and was retrained and began a reorganization of the authority.
• Streetscape project completed after many years (Alewine, Lyons to Spring Street)
• Decorative directional signs installed downtown
• Worked on securing occupants for vacant buildings

Public Works/Gas Program

• Upgraded odorizer and rectifier
• Upgraded regulator station on Kiker Street

Completed Roads (paved)

• Streets completed: West Lipham, Frierson Street, Odessa Street, Kiker Street, South Jackson Street, Chestnut Street, and Arbachoochee Road—a total of 6,900 linear feet and at a cost of $256,290.00.

Special Note: Streets bid – not done: Broad Street, H.B. Johnson Circle, James Avenue; Walker Street, White Street, Monroe Street, Taliaferro Street (will complete paving in 2023)

Tallapoosa Library

• Activities: pre-school story-craft time; Lunch Bunch book club; Busy Hands Happy hearts craft club; Coloring club for adults; summer reading club; Beanstack, and Prime Time Family reading program
• Hosted programs: Identity theft and Medicare educational programs as well as STEM days at the library.

Museum

• Expanded hours of the museum and staff to operate
• Installed a new air conditioner in the museum

Senior Center

• New HVAC system in the senior center.
• The center serves approximately 30 people daily at the center.
• The center delivers hot meals to 13 home-bound clients daily and delivers frozen meals to 43 home-bound clients weekly. On average they serve over 2,000 meals monthly. (Information supplied by center director.)

Financial

• Balanced Budget of $6,756,832.70
• Net Assets of $28,876,949.51
• General Fund Budget $2,935,514.70
• Long Term Debt (GEDA loans) is $1,057,809.07
• ISO Rating of 4.

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