Toccoa Marking Georgia Cities Week

The city of Toccoa is marking Georgia Cities Week this week with a host of activities.

Georgia Cities Week is sponsored and organized each year by the Georgia Municipal Association.

According to Toccoa Main Street Events Coordinator Sharon Crosby, the GMA hosts Georgia Cities Week each year in an effort to highlight what is going on in the state’s cities and to help try to connect residents to their city government.

Crosby said this is the first year that the city of Toccoa has chosen to participate in Georgia Cities Week.

“We have never done it before because typically it has been the same week as ‘A Taste of Toccoa,’ so we have just used our ‘A Taste of Toccoa’ as the event we would do, but this year with ‘A Taste of Toccoa’ being the next week, we were asked about doing it,” said Crosby.

In addition, Crosby said that this year’s theme for Georgia Cities Week is “Destination: Downtown.”

Crosby said the city feels it can use the week to put a spotlight both on downtown Toccoa and Toccoa city government.

“We wanted to encourage our citizens to come downtown, to meet some of the people they have only read about in the paper or heard about on the radio,” said Crosby. “Some people have not even been into City Hall, so this would be an opportunity to come and get to know a little more about city government.”

Activities begin today with a walk through downtown Toccoa with members of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission to learn about the city’s historic buildings. That starts at 4 p.m. at the historic train depot on Alexander Street.

Tuesday at 4 p.m., people can walk with the city loop trail with the city manager and some city commissioners. That also starts at the train depot.

Tuesday at 6 p.m., there will be a volunteer reception.

Then from noon to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, there will be an open house at Toccoa City Hall, followed by an event at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, where children can go to the parking lot at the corner of Broad and Doyle streets and explore some of the city’s vehicles, like fire trucks and police cars.

Events wrap up Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Schaefer Center with a showing of “Get on Up,” a movie about James Brown, who got his start in music in Toccoa.

Admission to the movie, which is rated PG-13, is $1.

Meanwhile, Main Street Toccoa is also hosting a photo contest in conjunction with Georgia Cities Week.

Main Street is asking people to take a picture that they think best captures what Toccoa means to them, whether it is a person, place, or thing.

Then, people should post the photos on Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #capturetoccoa.

Main Street said all photos must be taken and posted this week during Georgia Cities Week.

There will be three categories for pictures.

They are Best Scenic, Best Person or People, and Best Stephens County Spirit.

According to Main Street, when a picture is posted to either Facebook or Twitter with the #capturetoccoa, it should also include a hashtag indicating which category the picture belongs in, whether it is #bestscenic, #bestperson, or #bestspirit.

On April 27, Main Street Toccoa will post all pictures submitted in an album on its Facebook page with the category as the picture description.

Then, people will have until May 8 at 5 p.m. to vote for their favorite picture and the picture with the most likes in each category wins.

Winners will be announced at National Train Day on May 9 and the first place winner from each category will receive a framed 8 x 10 print of their photo.

For more information, call 706-282-3232.