Peachtree City

Mayor Steve Brown, who earlier this year was at odds with the Development

Authority of Peachtree City, seems to have mended the fences of disagreement.

The authority

is considering a request from Brown to use bond financing to pay for infrastructure

improvements to the commercial area on Ga. Highway 54 West that will be

anchored by the massive Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores.

Earlier this

year, Brown was zealous in defending his idea to create a "sports

and entertainment" authority to operate the city's tennis center

and amphitheater jobs that were already being performed by the Development

Authority.

The idea rang

as a sour note for many users of the tennis center, who appeared before

council several months ago to question the necessity of such a move.

Brown defended

the concept, saying the authority needed to concentrate more on economic

development.

And that's

just what the authority was doing at its economic development workshop

Saturday morning at the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center. At the meeting,

Brown discussed with the authority his desire for it to help fund infrastructure

projects identified through the city's Liveable Centers Initiative study.

Brown said

he would have preferred to fund the LCI projects through other means,

but time was of the essence. The projects include a bridge across the

railroad tracks to link the western quadrant of the city up with the rest

of the cart path system. Other projects include landscaping the median

of Hwy. 54 after it's widened to four lanes and burying power lines in

the corridor, the most expensive line item, costing an estimated $1.2

million.

Authority Chairman

Tate Godfrey said the authority's attorney will look into the matter.

It could be feasible since the authority performed a similar service for

the city by purchasing Drake Field last year as greenspace for the city,

with an agreement by city officials to repay those funds over several

years.

Godfrey told

Brown that the city could "dedicate" a portion of its millage

collections to pay the authority's annual debt service for the projects,

but that would take convincing the public of the projects' worth, he added.

Authority member

Scott Bradshaw suggested that revenues from the temporary 1 percent increase

in the city's hotel motel tax "would go a long way towards the debt

service on a low interest bond issue."

The catch is

that when the city council approved that 1 percent increase, it was with

the stipulation that the hotel-motel tax revert