Take heart, tennis-playing citizens of Peachtree City. Funds to repair the city’s four public tennis courts have been allocated and the project is at the top of the city’s priority list.
It will take up to $260,000 to get the work done at the Blue Smoke, Smokerise, Glenloch and Braelinn courts, according to city staff. But it will make all the courts playable again, whereas several have been closed for some time due to significant problems with the playing surface.
Another top priority is a $60,000 expenditure for a new irrigation pump at the city’s Baseball and Soccer Complex. The current pump is in such disrepair it is dangerous to operate, so the city is renting a pump to irrigate the fields, and doing so it not cheap, Community Services Director Jon Rorie told the city council Thursday night.
As for the rest of the $2.29 million left in the city’s $3 million facilities improvement bond, there is no lack of projects. And because the money is a finite element, some of the projects will be headed to the back burner.
One example is the proposed $500,000 parking lot expansion at the Baseball and Soccer Complex. Rorie noted that the city has already added about 18 spots and can add some more for convenience parking. While there are some parking issues at the facility, much of it boils down to patrons who don’t want to walk far to get to a given field, Rorie added.
Rorie recommended “keeping the funding available” but not moving forward on the project at this time.
Another project for the backburner is $100,000 to install a new rubberized surface at All Children’s Playground behind City Hall. The cost was initially budgeted at $50,000 and the decision needs to be made to either repair the surface or install a new one, Rorie said.
Rorie tagged the playground repairs, along with $80,000 to renovate the Braelinn sports fields, as discretionary funding. He did say staff would move forward with demolition of the scorer’s stands behind each field because they are in such a state of disrepair.
Another project moved off the list was the paving of a path to the Peachtree City Dog Park from the parking lot at the Shakerag recreational complex. That path segment should not be prioritized over a number of others that have cropped up, Rorie said.
Another discretionary item added to the list was a $500,000 chiller to replace a number of air conditioning units at the city’s police department.
Among the projects on the list for funding are:
• $39,000 to either replace the septic system at Riley Field or tie it into sewer. The existing system has had to be pumped out four times in the past three months, officials said;
• $60,000 to replace the fuel canopy at the public works department. The cost will probably be lower, but the current structure is expected to fail in the near future;
• $121,000 to seal the exterior walls of the library;
• $60,000 to resurface recreation pools;
• $51,000 to repair the driveway at fire station 81;
• $100,000 for repairs of health and safety issues at the city’s amphitheater;
• $210,000 to replace a failed sewer pipe servicing the amphitheater, Gathering Place and former recreation administration building;
• $150,000 in case a study determines the city’s pools need to have repairs or replacement of their electrical grounding systems. Such a failure was discovered in the recent renovations at the Kedron pools; and
• $40,000, a “wild guess” estimate to replace the tower at the city’s BMX track, though it is suspected the cost will be lower. The city has been advised to remove the existing tower because it is in disrepair.
The city is leaving a little over $500,000 set aside as contingency funds for the projects, and any leftover amount could be used to tackle even more projects later down the road, officials said.
