Covington, GA

Even as the leaves begin to change their color, Covington’s Clark’s Grove is "going greener.”

The Clark’s Grove Homeowner’s Association and several individual homeowners in the neighborhood are applying for a solar power grant from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Agency (GEFA). GEFA will supply grants from a $4,000,000 pool provided by the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the “Stimulus Bill”) for alternate energy projects in the state.

The Homeowner’s Association portion of the grant would provide solar panels for power and hot water for the neighborhood swim club. Individual homeowner grants would provide power for normal electrical service, solar thermal water heating, or a combination of the two.

The grant, if approved, would provide 75% of the cost of each residential system, with the homeowner providing the remaining 25%. Homes must have proper sun orientation and exposure to participate.

Hannah Solar, who is submitting the grant on behalf of Clark’s Grove, says that the roof-mounted solar panels should cut electricity bills almost in half for the homeowners, providing a payback to the user in only two to three years. After the payback, everything is “savings” for the consumer. The system should be expected to operate without problems for at least 20 years.

Clark’s Grove is Covington’s premiere Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND). TNDs are an emerging national trend in land use planning, smart development, and environmental stewardship. Walkable communities where people live, work, shop and play, TND neighborhoods, such as Clark’s Grove, feature a town center, parks, plazas, commercial establishments, civic buildings, common green spaces, tree-lined sidewalks, narrow street grids, paths and trails throughout, and homes with front porches set close to the street on small lots.

Homes in Clark’s Grove are built to “EarthCraft” standards. EarthCraft House is a green building program that specifies building standards resulting in healthy, comfortable homes that reduce utility bills and protect the environment. The program is a partnership between the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, Southface Energy Institute, the government and industry partners whose aim is to help home builders be leaders in smart growth management and environmental stewardship.

Covington Georgia August 2009 Real Estate Resale Market Report

• Active Listings 1389
• Pending Sales 139
• Closed Sales 93
• Week's Inventory 65

The "Week's Inventory" indicates the number of weeks it takes to sell the current inventory of homes at the present rate of sales. Inventory level in a "good real estate market" is considered to be around 24 weeks.

Since Last Month's Report:

• Active Listings DOWN 12.8%
• Pending Sales DOWN 4.8%
• Closed Sales DOWN 34.5%

Foreclosures:

New foreclosures in the Covington and Newton County real estate market were DOWN in August by 1.8%. However, for the eight-month period, foreclosures are UP 11% in the county over the same period last year.

The Average Sales Price of homes in the Covington real estate market in August was UP 3.5% over July, but DOWN 22.3% from August 2008 prices.

DISCLAIMER: All information, photographs & content contained within this blog is the property of Bill Blair and may only be used with express written permission of the author or via the Active Rain "reblog" function, posted in its entirety with attribution to the author.

All statistical information used to create this report was obtained from GAMLS. Information Deemed Reliable but not Guaranteed.

If you are looking for something Fun And Free to do this weekend, then come out to the Square in Covington, GA this Friday.

General Mills is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Covington, GA plant on Friday September 4, 2009 at 7:00 PM on the Square in Downtown Covington.


Hosted by General Mills celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Covington Plant & Main Street Covington

The Vampire Diaries, a new teen television series on The CW network based on author L.J. Smith's 1991 trilogy of books, will be filmed in downtown Covington, GA. Covington will play the role of the small Virginia town of Mystic Falls.

"When the writers came and visited Covington and saw the square, it was exactly what they had pictured for Mystic Falls," said Jessica Royal, a Bonanza Productions employee. Bonanza is producing the series in association with Warner Brothers.

Covington was chosen because of the great incentives offered by Georgia and the film-friendly environment of Covington.

Covington has a proven track record of hosting successful films and television productions. Covington has been a very welcoming environment for production companies for many years.

There will be at least 12 episodes filmed in Covington. If the show is successful, the first season will be extended, and the final additional episode would be finished filming sometime in April 2010.

We in Covington, hopes the show will be successful and picked up for a second season, in which case filming would start back up again in June. Covington will be the set for the main location of Mystic Falls, so the show will require several other locations around Georgia.

The Vampire Diaries shares many similarities to the more recently popular Twilight series, centering on a high school student who becomes interested in a mysterious male classmate who turns out to be a vampire.

The CW Web site provides a brief description of the show: "Elena Gilbert has always been a star student: beautiful, popular and involved with school and friends. As the fall semester begins, Elena becomes fascinated with the mysterious new boy in school, Stefan Salvatore, and she has no way of knowing he is a centuries-old vampire. While Stefan struggles to live peacefully among humans, his brother Damon is the embodiment of violence and brutality. Now these two vampire brothers - one good, one evil - are at war for Elena's soul in the small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia."

The three main characters will be played by actors Nina Dobrev, currently in the CW series Degrassi: The Next Generation; Paul Wesley, who has recently appeared in episodes of 24 and Army Wives; and Ian Somerhalder, who played Boone Carlyle on Lost.

The show will premiere September 10 at 8 p.m. on The CW. For more information about the show and to see a trailer visit The CW's Web page at cwtv.com/shows/the-vampire-diaries.

Way!!

This morning, I saw the first flock of geese flying south over my house, foretelling a change of seasons for Covington. Autumn is my favorite time of year, bringing clean, crisp air, beautiful colored leaves against the backdrop of white antebellum columns, SEC football, and vampires. Vampires?!?!

Covington has again been chosen as the perfect site for the filming of a new television series, The Vampire Diaries. When writers and location managers visited Covington and saw the historic square, it was exactly what they had in mind for the fictitious town of “Mystic Falls, Va,.” setting fo the series.

The teen-oriented series will share similarities with the highly popular “Twilight” movie series about a high school student who becomes infatuated with a mysterious classmate who turns out to be a vampire. The CW web site describes the series like this:

“Elena Gilbert has always been a star student: beautiful, popular and involved with school and friends. As the fall semester begins, Elena becomes fascinated with the mysterious new boy in school, Stefan Salvatore, and she has no way of knowing he is a centuries-old vampire. While Stefan struggles to live peacefully among humans, his brother Damon is the embodiment of violence and brutality. Now these two vampire brothers – one good, one evil – are at war for Elena’s soul in the small town of Mystic falls, Virginia.”

In addition to Covington starring as Mystic Falls, the series will also star Nina Dobrev, currently in the CW series “Degrassi: The Next Generation;” Paul Wesley, recently on episodes of “24” and “Army Wives;” and Ian Somerhalder, who played Boone Carlyle on “Lost.” The show began filming in Covington in late July, and will be shooting at various times until around April.

Producers are very pleased with the way the show has progressed, and hope it will be picked up for a second season. Michael Walbrecht, vice president at Warner Bros. Entertainment, is so pleased with the series progress and Covington’s involvement; he recently notified the city that he could be sending a couple more shows our way, according to “The Covington News.”

If you’d like more information about “The Vampire Diaries,” including a trailer and still photos, take a look at The CW’s web site at cwtv.com/shows/the-vampire-diaries.

Other movies and television series filmed in Covington include “A Man Called Peter, My Cousin Vinnie, Six Pack, Halloween II, The Dukes of Hazard, and In the Heat of the Night.” After a long hiatus, Covington may be regaining its title as “Hollywood of the South.”

Film crew trucks loaded with cameras, lights, props, wardrobe and dressing rooms line Covington's historic Floyd Street during filmin of the new CW network TV series "The Vampire Diaries"