A bid to get

a $1.7 million state grant to expand Peachtree City's library just might

be revived after all.

"We now

have a chance at a state grant," Chris Clark, chairman of the Peachtree

City Library Commission, told the city council last week.

The catch is,

to qualify, the city will have to chip in $728,000 of the cost to add

an extra 10,000 square feet "to an already crowded library,"

Clark said.

"Of all

the years for the grant to fall in," lamented Mayor Steve Brown.

"It's

a difficult opportunity to refuse," said councilman Dan Tennant.

Finance Director

Paul Salvatore said council would have to spend its share of the funds

is that it will cost upwards of $200,000 a year in operating expenses

to expand the library, Salvatore added.

Clark urged

the council to reconsider replacing the "seed money" it had

budgeted this year for the library's expansion grant. The $137,063 was

one of many cuts in the city's 2002-03 budget as council slashed $1.8

million in projects to stave off what could have been a significant property

tax increase.

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