With the Community Assessment portion of the Comp Plan complete, City staff, consultants and three citizen committees now turn their attention to the Community Participation portion of the process, gathering input from citizens on what they want the City to look like in the future.

A series of public workshops in February and March will give residents multiple chances to have their say on land use, transportation and green space. Read more.

In his first-ever State of the City address on January 31, Mayor Mike Bodker shared some statistical "snapshots" of the community, reflected on the accomplishments of the city's first year of existence, and outlined goals for 2008 and beyond.

The Mayor also used the occasion to announce several initiatives, including a comprehensive environmental program, becoming a "Heart Ready City," and a "Choose to Use Johns Creek" campaign encouraging residents to use Johns Creek as their city address - and insisting others do the same when corresponding.

Watch video of the speech* (24 MB), read the text and view the accompanying PowerPoint presentation (3.5 MB).

* Requires the free Window Media Player, available here.

Most of the Johns Creek Police Chief Ed Densmore's senior leadership team and command staff are on board and busy preparing for the launch of the city's first Police Department in late April.

Recruitment for Lateral Transfer Police Officers continues with a Police Job Fair set for Saturday, Feb. 9, 9 am - 4 pm at police headquarters, 11445 Johns Creek Parkway. Read more about the recruitment process.

The Georgia Recreation and Parks Association recently notified City officials that it has accepted the city for membership. To gain acceptance to the 1,600-member association, the City had to submit an application and undergo an interview by GRPA Membership Committee before ultimately being approved by the associations 34-member Board of Trustees. Read more.

A few short months before the City of Johns Creek opened its doors, city founders determined that the best way to manage the business of the city was to hire a business to help manage the city. CH2M Hill was tasked with starting up the new city in less than 90 days, investing its own resources to put in place all of the systems, processes and tools necessary to run a complete city.

That relationship has now been recognized as among the nation's best. Read more.

City homeowners have until March 1 to file their applications for Homestead Exemption with Fulton County, but only those who have not applied previously or who qualify for new exemptions need to fill out the paperwork.

To qualify for any Homestead Exemption, homeowners must have owned and occupied their home as their primary residence as of January 1 of the application year. Read more.

Newtown Recreation announces the start of youth and adult tennis programs at Newtown Park offered exclusively through a partnership with the Tennis Academy of the South.

The programs will be offered in two sessions, one starting February 26 (6 weeks), the second beginning April 14 (8 weeks). Read more.

The gravel portion of Rogers Bridge Road will be closed February 9-10 for maintenance. Crews will be re-grading the road and installing a dust control / soil stabilization material.

If you didn't get a copy of the winter issue of the Johns Creek's quarterly print newsletter, CityLink, download a copy here.

City Hall will be closed Monday the 18th in observance of President's Day.