Although Peachtree

City mayor-elect Steve Brown hasn't been sworn into office yet, he is

already making waves over a key city project.

Brown had requested

information on the expansion project that will add six covered tennis

courts and an office building to the city's tennis center; a workshop

was held on the matter Friday afternoon at City Hall.

The $2.507

million contract for the expansion was approved unanimously by the City

Council at its Oct. 18 meeting, but that didn't stop council members Dan

Tennant and Steve Rapson from gently criticizing the project's bidding

process during the workshop.

The chorus

of the criticism was that more bidders should have been sought for the

project and the City Council should have been made aware that there were

only three bids for the financing of the project.

Meanwhile,

grading work has already begun on the expansion, which is billed as giving

the center the ability to attract even more prestigious tennis events.

The Development

Authority of Peachtree City, which operates the tennis center, oversaw

the entire bidding process.

Selecting a

bank for financing the project, however, was partially out of the authority's

hands since it was done through the Georgia Municipal Association's Bricks

and Mortar Program, which only seeks bids from specially qualified banks.

Virgil Christian,

the authority's new executive director, who has been laboring over the

project the past several years as the director of the tennis center, defended

the criticism. He noted that the contractors on the projects helped cut

the price down from its original $3.1 million estimate.

The main contractor

on the project is Group VI, while Flat Creek Inc. is responsible for surfacing

the tennis courts and the authority contracted with Foley Design Associates

which designed the original tennis center, Christian said.

Group VI was

one of four construction firms who replied to the public advertisements

in The Fayette Daily News, the county's legal organ. But through the process

of reviewing each firm's qualifications, two of the companies, Tomco Construction

and Burcher Company, were determined not to have met the qualifications.

That left Group

VI and Tiernan and Patrylo as the remaining bidders. In doing its checks

on both companies, members of the authority's construction committee found

one of Tiernan and Patrylo's previous projects had several minor unresolved

issues, and that was one of the deciding factors in going with Group VI

instead, said Jim Fulton, a member of the authority's construction committee.

The authority

ended up authorizing negotiations with Group VI for the contract on the

expansion.

Brown said

he felt the Development Authority should have advertised the project outside

of Fayette County. Tennant agreed, and both mentioned that there are plenty

of other capable construction firms in the Atlanta area.

Group VI is

headquartered in Peachtree City, however. Brown said he wasn't impressed

with the quality of some of Group VI's construction projects, but he didn't

cite specific examples.

Christian said

he considered putting the proposal to Atlanta firms, but he felt the tendency

of projects from metro area companies was to have delays because they

weren't located nearby.

"I think

we had four well-qualified bidders, two were very qualified and one was

most qualified," Christian said.

Bill Foley,

the architect on the project who helped manage part of the bidding process,

said other firms shy away from doing work in Peachtree City because of

the added expense involved with meeting the city's landscaping requirements.

Tennant said

he wasn't making any accusations, but he wanted to make sure the citizens'

tax monies were being spent correctly.

Christian said

his door remains open for anyone with questions about the project.

"If you

need information, I'll get it to you," Christian said.

Financing for

the project, which was funneled through the Georgia Municipal Association's

Bricks and Mortar program, ended up with First Union, with a winning bid

of 4.44 percent interest over the life of the 15-year loan. The tennis

center was one of the construction projects the city sought to finance

through GMA, including the renovations to City Hall and renovations to

a fire station.

City Finance

Director Paul Salvatore noted that the deal with First Union was under

the budgeted finance rate of 5 percent. The actual rate locked in was

4.41 percent since city officials were able to convince First Union to

reduce the rate.

The other bidders

on the financing package were SunTrust Bank and BB&T.

"As far

as I know, we did as good as we could have," Salvatore said.

Rapson complained

that council wasn't told about only receiving three bids for the financing

package. Salvatore said GMA officials told him there were "really

only two banks who were aggressive in pursuing these type of deals."

"Maybe

some of these things we should question on the next project," Brown

said as the workshop wrapped up.

"I think

the message is we'd rather have more information than too little,"

Tennant said.

The workshop

came to fruition after Brown requested information on the bidding process

used for the tennis center. City Manager Jim Basinger said he contacted

Development Authority Chairman Tom Farr about the request, and Farr suggested

a face-to-face meeting would be appropriate to address any concerns.

Brown noted

that City Attorney Rick Lindsey and Development Authority attorney Mark

Oldenburg attended the meeting, and he said it wasn't his intention for

them to be there.

Basinger explained

that since Lindsey generally attends all council meetings, and the workshop

was announced as a called meeting of the City Council, it was decided

that Lindsey should attend. He also noted that Lindsey was aware of the

situation with the tennis center.

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