The Peachtree City Council

will take the first step toward assuming management of the city's tennis

center and amphitheater from the Development Authority of Peachtree City

on Thursday when it considers an application for a so-called 501(c)6 tax-exempt

status.

The IRS designation, intended

for "exemption from federal income tax as a nonprofit business league,

chamber of commerce, real estate board, board of trade, or professional

football league," is necessary for the city to collect hotel-motel

tax revenue earmarked for operation of the venues, said Betsy Tyler, public

information specialist with the city.

"It's our understanding

that we need to legally set that up in order to run those facilities,"

said Tyler. "It's the funding mechanism we need to have in place."

The Development Authority of

Peachtree City had been receiving a cut of the hotel-motel monies as just

such a nonprofit, with most of the revenue used just to maintain the authority's

debt service, said Tyler. The bulk of actual operating costs were supposed

to be funded from ticket sales at the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater

and membership fees at the Peachtree City Tennis Center.

Those kinds of financial uncertainties

are the type city officials have been addressing since last Thursday night,

when the DAPC dropped a bombshell into the lap of Mayor Steve Brown and

the unsuspecting City Council by voting 5-0 to give up management of the

city-owned facilities effective Oct. 30.

The DAPC also accepted the

resignation of its executive director, Virgil Christian, who managed both

venues while operating the tennis center pro shop as his own private business,

but utilizing DAPC employees, as detailed in a resignation letter last

Tuesday from DAPC Vice Chairman Scott Bradshaw.

For nearly two years, Brown

has waged a campaign to make the authority accountable for what he claimed

were gross mismanagement practices and cost overruns associated with expansion

of the Tennis Center, but he didn't expect the DAPC and its chairman,

Tate Godrey, to quit altogether, taking advantage of an "out"

clause in its contract with the city.

That option, to hand the facilities

back over to the city council, had been under consideration for several

weeks, DAPC Attorney Mark Oldenburg confirmed, but it was hastened by

the Sept. 23 resignation of DAPC Vice-Chairman Bradshaw. The DAPC had

given no public hint it was considering resigning its major function,

and city officials were caught open-mouthed at the development.

In his resignation letter that

brought on a firestorm of criticism, Bradshaw outlined a series of actions

on behalf of the DAPC with Adidas promising pro shop sales of $366,000

over five years.

City Manager Bernard McMullen

made the rounds Friday morning, just hours after the DAPC voted to sever

ties, meeting with employees to reassure them that the city's best interest

was to continue to provide the same level of services at both venues.

For now, workers at either of the two venues will stay on as city employees.

He also met briefly with city

hall staffers on what the impact of taking on the tennis center and amphitheater

will mean to them, and to develop a transition plan.

"Our desire is to keep

the venues open and continue to serve the citizens of Peachtree City,"

McMullen said. "We are collecting information and will look at the

status of operations at the venues before any decision are made."

McMullen, on the job since

late spring, was in and out of meetings all day on Monday, most about

the DAPC transfer.

The council will receive a

full update on transition progress Thursday night. They are also expected

to give final approval to a 17.4 percent hike in property taxes to finance

the FY '04 budget of $27 million, which goes into effect Oct. 1.

That spending plan, already

called the leanest in city history, was negotiated before the bombshell

DAPC decision and does not address the additional expenses the shift might

require of the city.

Final public hearings on the

millage rate increase are set Thursday at 7:30 a.m. and again at 7 p.m.

preceding the regular council meeting.

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