Some changes have been made at Locust Grove City Hall in recent weeks due to the city’s growth and the staff’s overall workload.

  The position of assistant city manager has been created, with Bert Foster moving from his former post as community development director to assume the new role.

  “We have a lot of things that the council is wanting to do,” said city manager Tim Young. “There is more than one person can do.”

  Foster, who started working for Locust Grove in 2013, is going to be focusing on the city’s capital projects while helping Daunte Gibbs, who started working at City Hall within the past two weeks, transition into the community development director’s role.

  All three men – Young, Foster and Gibbs – formerly worked for Henry County government. Gibbs was the county’s most recent director of planning and zoning.

  In all, these moves are the latest reflection of the growth at City Hall. Young, who started in 2005 as Locust Grove’s first community development director, said that there were 43 city employees when he became city manager in 2012. Now there are 65.

  Young worked for Henry County in the late 1990s and then spent some time with the city of McDonough. He acknowledged the value of having employees in Locust Grove who have such familiarity with the county’s government and the area in general.

  “We value anyone who has a lot of training and education behind them,” he said. “They [Foster and Gibbs] are both more than qualified to do the job.”

  Locust Grove is the fastest-growing city in Henry County according to census figures, and Young said the most recent numbers might be underestimating the growth.

  “Permitting here is greater than what the 2018 population estimate shows,” he said.  “We are doing real well. We are growing faster now than we were at any time in the past. We’ve grown 33.5 percent since 2010.”