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Office: Peach County Sheriff’s Office – 1007 Spruce Street, Fort Valley, GA 31030 | (478) 825-3435; Sheriff Robert “Buck” Shannon, elected in 2024 and taking office January 2025 – the county’s first Black sheriff, a genuinely historic milestone locally. The office employs 63 total staff, 31 of them sworn deputies, patrolling 151 square miles including I-75, one of the longest continuous six-lane freeways in the U.S., with four exits within the county.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-75 and US-341 serve Fort Valley, the county seat and largest city, nicknamed the “Peach Capital of Georgia,” carrying the motto “Where Caring Is A Way Of Life,” part of the Warner Robins metropolitan area within the Macon-Warner Robins combined statistical area. Byron is the county’s other incorporated city.
Notes: Peach County was created July 18, 1924, from parts of Houston and Macon Counties, and is genuinely the newest county in the state of Georgia, named for the peach – reflecting the region’s major peach-growing industry. Fort Valley’s own name is something of a local mystery: the town, founded in 1836, has never actually had a fort; historians believe “Fort Valley” resulted from a transcription error when the post office was named, with the area originally thought to have been called “Fox Valley.”
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Peach County Courthouse – off GA-49, Fort Valley, GA (built 1936, Colonial/Williamsburg Revival, with a 1972 T-shaped addition creating an H-shaped interior; National Register of Historic Places since 1980), the county’s first and only courthouse, genuinely one of just a few Colonial Revival-style courthouses in Georgia.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Peach County Veterans Services – confirm current contact via peachcounty.net.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Peach County Public Library (Fort Valley) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The historic 1936 Colonial Revival courthouse is the county’s premier heritage attraction, complementing Peach County’s identity as a center of Georgia’s celebrated peach-growing industry.
Notes: Confirm current parks and recreation facilities via peachcounty.net.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Peach County Tax Assessor – confirm current contact via peachcounty.net.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via peachcounty.net; Peach County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Peach County Solid Waste / Planning & Zoning – confirm current contact via peachcounty.net.
NOTES: Peach County is the one-hundred-and-thirteenth county completed in Georgia’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. Sheriff Robert Shannon’s historic 2025 milestone as the county’s first Black sheriff, and the enduring mystery behind Fort Valley’s fort-less name, are among the standout local facts covered in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Peach County County
Peach County is Georgia’s peach capital – Lane Southern Orchards and the middle Georgia peach orchards that have sustained the state’s fruit-growing identity define a county whose agricultural heritage is encoded in its very name, anchored by Fort Valley’s position at the heart of Georgia’s most celebrated agricultural product.
Fort Valley (the county seat, population ~9,000) is Peach County’s governmental hub, a middle Georgia agricultural city on US 341 whose Lane Southern Orchards, peach heritage, Fort Valley State University, and Blue Bird bus manufacturing anchor a diverse middle Georgia economy.
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Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Peach County Tax Assessor at 205 W. Church Street, Suite 221, Fort Valley, GA 31030, phone 478-825-5924. GA assessed at 40% of fair market value.
Courts & Legal
Peach County Probate Court at 205 W. Church Street, Fort Valley, GA 31030, phone 478-825-2535, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT (Records, Marriage Licenses)
205 W. Church St., Fort Valley, GA 31030
(478) 825-5331
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Peach County Probate Court (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above); holds birth, marriage, death, and probate records from 1925. Clerk of Superior Court holds divorce, court, and land records from 1925 (Peach County was created in 1924, one of Georgia’s youngest counties).
Central Georgia Genealogical Society (Warner Robins) serves Peach among 27 contiguous central Georgia counties.
Local societies
Central Georgia Genealogical Society (see above) is the primary regional resource; no dedicated Peach-County-only genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Peach County Probate Court 205 West Church Street, Suite 117, P.O. Box 327, Fort Valley, GA 31030 (478) 825-2313
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Peach County is part of the Macon metro area, known for its peach orchards.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Georgia is NOT a Uniform Probate Code state and doesn’t use a simple dollar-threshold “small estate affidavit” like many states. Instead it offers several distinct shortcuts, each suited to a different situation:
Banking Affidavit – for intestate estates with less than $15,000 in bank deposits and no other assets requiring administration. No court filing needed at all.
No Administration Necessary (Standard Form 9) – available when all heirs agree on how to divide the property and there are no debts (or all creditors consent). Can transfer real estate without full administration, but requires unanimous heir agreement – any disagreement forces the estate into formal probate.
Year’s Support (Standard Form 10, O.C.G.A. Chapter 53-3) – a distinctively Georgia protection: the surviving spouse and minor children can petition for property sufficient to maintain their standard of living for 12 months from the date of death. This takes priority over virtually all creditor claims and even most specific bequests in the will. Must be filed within 24 months of death. No bond, no inventory filing, no creditor claims period required – the fastest and simplest path when it applies.
Formal Administration – Petition to Probate Will (Common Form or Solemn Form) or Petition for Letters of Administration, when none of the above shortcuts fit.
COMMON FORM VS. SOLEMN FORM (a distinctively Georgia choice)
Common Form: the executor files the will with supporting evidence and the court admits it without notifying all heirs – faster and cheaper, but leaves a 4-year window during which interested parties can challenge the will.
Solemn Form (Standard Form 5): requires notice to all heirs; once granted, it’s final and binding much sooner, closing off future challenges.
If formal administration is needed
File the appropriate petition with the Peach County Probate Court – Petition to Probate Will (Common or Solemn Form) if there’s a will, or Petition for Letters of Administration if not.
The court issues a citation, published in the county’s legal organ once a week for four weeks (O.C.G.A. § 53-5-2), giving interested parties a chance to object.
After the publication period, attend the hearing for appointment as personal representative.
Once appointed, the court issues Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (without one).
Send certified copies of the death certificate and Letters to all banks, brokerages, insurers, and retirement custodians; request date-of-death valuations and begin marshaling assets.
Obtain an EIN via IRS Form SS-4 and open an estate checking account.
Prepare an inventory of assets with date-of-death fair market values; the court may require this under O.C.G.A. § 53-7-30.
Pay debts and expenses in Georgia’s priority order (see below), then distribute remaining assets per the will or intestacy law.
What it costs
No Georgia state estate tax or inheritance tax.
Court filing fees typically range $100–$300 depending on the county.
Certified copies of Letters typically cost around $10 each.
Indigent petitioners may file an Affidavit of Indigency to request a fee waiver.
E-filing is available and encouraged statewide through platforms like PeachCourt or Odyssey eFileGA.
DEBT PRIORITY ORDER IF THE ESTATE CAN’T PAY EVERYTHING (O.C.G.A. §§ 53-3-1, 53-7-40)
Year’s Support for surviving spouse and minor children under 18.
Funeral expenses.
Costs of probate administration.
Expenses of the decedent’s last illness.
Taxes.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
205 W. Church St., Fort Valley, GA 31030
(478) 825-3383
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTIONS / VOTER REGISTRATION
213 Persons St., Fort Valley, GA 31030
(478) 825-5331
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
GA Dept of Public Health — Central
(478) 825-5241
GA DFCS — Peach
(478) 825-6331
GA Medicaid
(800) 869-1150
Navicent Health Peach
navicenthealth.org/peach (Fort Valley)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Peach County Health Department – confirm current contact via peachcounty.net.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Fort Valley
Population: 27,000
Area: 152 sq mi
Established: 1924
Public Records
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