Friday, February 21, 2003
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Friday, February 21, 2003 |
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PTC Council contingency fund almost empty with 7 months left in budget year By JOHN MUNFORD 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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