With over half

the fiscal year left, the Peachtree City Council has spent 84 percent

of its contingency fund.

But they haven't

broken the bank, so to speak. If a true emergency arises, council can

dip into approximately $2.4 million in cash reserves or possibly another

$294,000 that's in the Public Improvement Plan contingency fund, said

city Finance Director Paul Salvatore.

Establishing

the cash reserve fund was one of Salvatore's first tasks when he joined

the city.

"The PIP

contingency fund is really for overruns on major projects or equipment

that breaks down and suddenly you have to replace a piece of equipment

that you didn't plan on replacing this year," Salvatore explained.

In addition

to serving as an emergency cash source, the cash reserves also help to

improve the city's bond rating, Salvatore said. That can help the city

get a better interest rate on projects it finances over a period of time.

Most of the

$189,000 that has been spent from the $225,000 council contingency budget

was for the engineering and construction of the TDK Boulevard extension

into Coweta County. That construction project will be run by the county,

but the city has agreed to pay $150,000 toward construction of the road.

Of that total,

$100,000 has come from the council contingency fund for construction along

with an estimated $20,000 for engineering services.

Another $21,000

has also been committed to improve the intersection of Ga. Highway 74

south and Dividend Drive so the Georgia Department of Transportation can

put a traffic signal there to aid Panasonic, which has experienced difficulties

with employees and trucks entering the highway due to heavy traffic.

Council has

also spent $32,000 to develop a master plan for the Liveable Centers Initiative

project, which is a comprehensive plan for the development in the area

of commercial parcels that will be built on the north side of Ga. Highway

54 west.

While the council's

contingency fund is almost tapped out, part of that is due to council

cutting $150,000 from the council contingency budget to help ease the

burden of a property tax increase.

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