ADAIRSVILLE — Adairsville City Manager Pat Crook told Bartow County business leaders Thursday that quality of life and infrastructure issues will be the focus for city leaders heading into 2013.

Crook spoke at the monthly Adairsville Council of the Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce meeting at the Adairsville Inn.

“The rehabilitation and expansion of infrastructure are important to our businesses,” Crook said.

She told the group about how one day recently city officials were digging up a water line and discovered that some of the old water pipes dated to 1906.

Adairsville leaders are also working hard to expand sidewalk and trail connections within the city.

Much of the city’s grants in recent years have been used to add sidewalks to Main Street, King Street, Summer Street and MLK Boulevard.

“We also want to create places for people to gather,” Crook said.

The Public Square in downtown Adairsville has been completely renovated in recent years, and a new grant will be used to enhance the old Logtown community at the south end of the downtown.

That work should create an open plaza that is attractively landscaped while at the same time renovating the old Ford building downtown for additional community purposes.

Crook also said job creation has been important to city leaders, pointing to expansions at Yanmar Manufacturing, the addition of Vista Metals and the recent move of Downey Metal Products to the community.

Work has begun again on a Hampton Inn on Ga. 140 east of Interstate 75 and the 50,000-square-foot hotel is expected to open in the spring, Crook said.

Chamber of Commerce President Joe Frank Harris said the chamber’s effort to stress a Buy Bartow campaign seems to be paying off.

Harris pointed to Department of Labor figures, which indicate the payrolls of Bartow businesses have expanded by nearly $80 million during the past two years.