At the end of fiscal year 2007, Newton County collected $6.26 million in impact fees, with accrued interest from developers.

A large portion of the collected fees will be used for the construction of a library and a park, both in District 2.

The Newton County Board of Commissioners received and approved the transmittal of the Annual Capital Improvements Element Update to the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center at their Tuesday night meeting.

Local governments are required by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to update their CIE on an annual basis.

The recent downturn in the housing market of Newton County, which is part of a regional and national housing slump, resulted in slightly less impact fee collections than the BOC originally anticipated according to John Middleton, county executive officer.

"[The] slowdown in building has slowed down collection of impact fees," Middleton said.

Despite the slowdown Middleton said the BOC will move forward with the two projects already underway, the Oak Hill Library and Denny Dobbs Park, as fees become available.

Middleton said he didn't think the board would amend the county's 10 year capital improvement structure plan, as it was adopted in 2005.

"You certainly anticipate some highs and lows in the collection plan over that 10 years," Middleton said. "I don't think you would ever expect to have a straight line where everything is a straight line from the one year to the next."

Nearly $4 million in impact fees was collected at the close of FY 2007 for road improvements including a project to widen Crowell Road from Ga. Highway 81 to Brown Bridge Road from two to four lanes, and a project to widen Fairview Road from the Rockdale County line to Interstate-20 frontage from two to three lanes.

The Crowell Road project is estimated to cost $3 million and the Fairview Road project is estimated to cost $7 million.