A few months ago, Peachtree City elected its first female mayor. Since that election, I sat down with Mayor Vanessa Fleisch to ask her some questions about her important role in the community.

Q:  What past experiences do you have that help you in your new role as mayor?

A:   I have found that my experience as a former television news producer has been valuable in that I believe in communicating with our citizens and I have been able to use social media in a way that has helped our citizens. Also, as a Realtor I have a knowledge of the City that has helped me immensely.  As a Realtor and a homeowner I am aware of the concerns that residents have.

Q:  Why did you decide to run for mayor?

A:   I ran because I saw that the City really needed someone who was dedicated to making it better. As a member of the PTC Council I was able to work with a number of people to improve our Senior program, our Recreation Department, our economic development and our Convention and Visitors Bureau and I wanted the opportunity to continue that work as Mayor of PTC.

Q:  What is the biggest issue in Peachtree City that you want to confront as mayor?

A:   Significant strides have been made to the aesthetics of the City over the past couple of years and I would like to see that continue. For years we have deferred maintenance on our cart paths and our recreational facilities and we are working to repair and restore a lot of facilities.

Q:  How do you plan to attract business to Peachtree City?

A:   It is important to try and bring in new businesses to our City, but more importantly we must also remember that we need to retain the businesses that are currently here. This year we gave our first Job Investment Grant to Panasonic; a company that has been here for a number of years. The Jobs Investment Grant was given to Panasonic because of them bringing over 100 engineering jobs to the City. To help recruit and retain businesses, the City is working with the Fayette County Development Authority and that partnership has been very fruitful for the City. We have also thought “out of the box” and are using our Recreational Facilities as a way to bring in more customers to our hotels and restaurants by having more sports tournaments and events in the City. The Convention and Visitors Bureau is working with our Recreation Department to bring in the events while at the same time not forgetting that these are facilities for our citizens. We have been able to work together to make this be a win win for all involved.

Q:  Do you plan on making improvements to the city’s roadways and/or cart paths?

A:   Yes, we just approved a contract with Keep Peachtree City Beautiful to expand their work to include the cleaning of cart paths. They will be picking up litter and sprucing up the paths as a part of this expansion. I am very excited about this and I look forward to the great work that they will do. We still do need money to resurface our roads and paths. There will discussions as to how to fund this during our budget discussions in the next few months.

Q:  Are there any current policies in Peachtree City that you want to change, or possibly enhance?

A:   We need to find a way to make sure that the City’s infrastructure does not suffer in the future as it has in the past. Years of neglect has led to expenditures that may have been avoided if we took care of our facilities better.

Q:  As mayor, what would your message be to the youth of Peachtree City?

A:   Get involved and volunteer! Just picking up litter on the paths and roadways is a wonderful way to contribute. Also, being responsible on the cart paths and courteous to your fellow drivers would be awesome.

Q:  Lastly, where do you see Peachtree City in 5 or 10 years?

A:   I genuinely feel as though this Council is laying the foundation for the next 5 to 10 years. We are a wonderful community and we need to do more events that help to bring us together, which is one of the reasons why we are doing a Block Party at City Hall for the 4th of July.