The fate of several big-ticket

projects for Peachtree City will be in the hands of voters this November

during the General Election.

Thursday night, the City Council

approved a resolution to offer the projects for consideration on a bond

referendum totalling $6.85 million. Each project will be listed separately

on the ballot so voters can pick and choose which ones to support, if

any.

Included in those projects

are:

Acquisition of the Braelinn

Baptist Church campus for use as a community center and the purchase of

equipment and furniture. The facility has 18 classrooms and a multi-purpose

auditorium that can seat up to 600 people ($2.6 million);

Expansion of the Kedron Fieldhouse

recreation area with a multipurpose gym, a multipurpose room, restrooms

and more office and storage space ($1.73 million);

Improvements to Drake Field,

including a walking trail, a bridge connecting the area to Picnic Park,

picnic areas and relocation of the parking lot closer to City Hall ($700,000);

Construction of four playgrounds

and two picnic shelters ($200,000); and

Refinancing of debt owed by

the city's Airport Authority to save $120,000 in interest payments ($1.62

million).

City officials have calculated

the associated property tax increase necessary to operate and maintain

each project. One of the projects to refinance the Airport Authority debt

will not affect the tax rate, because it will be funded by the increased

hotel-motel tax, said finance director Paul Salvatore.

The other projects are estimated

to increase the city's property taxes by various amounts beginning in

2003. City officials calculated the cost associated with each project

as it would affect owners of homes with a fair market value of $200,000.

Using those figures, the Drake

Field improvements would cost $3.92 per year; the playgrounds and picnic

shelters would cost $1.44 per year; and the Kedron Expansion would cost

$12.02 per year.

Since the plans for the community

center involve sharing the facility with Braelinn Baptist the first year,

that facility would originally cost $20.20 in 2003 before increasing to

$31.20 a year in subsequent years.

If any of the projects are

approved, the bonds will be paid off over 25 years. By doing so, the costs

are shared by future residents of Peachtree City instead of using lump

sums of cash to burden current taxpayers only, according to city officials.

The city's credit rating and

tax base qualify it for up to $115 million in bond debt. These projects,

however, would increase the city's bond debt by $7.14 million.

The community center would

be used to expand the classes offered by the Recreation Department. Randy

Gaddo, the city's director of leisure services, said it is also important

for the facility to create revenue by renting out space for receptions,

seminars and other events.

Mayor Bob Lenox said there

is no way the city could spend the same amount of money to build a similar

facility from scratch.

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