By JOHN THOMPSON
Coweta Editor

With predictions of everything ranging from planes crashing, banks collapsing and power plants failing, local governments are slowly starting to realize the "Year 2000" computer problem could cause many problems in conducting the city's business.

The City of Peachtree City has already has a committee of department representatives assessing what systems will be affected by the "Y2K" bug if it is not exterminated by Dec. 31, 1999. The process will mostly involve upgrading computer software, a regular expense already planned in departmental budgets "whether or not the year 2000 was looming before us," said committee member Betsy Tyler.

The city of Senoia jumped to the forefront of Coweta County Monday night in trying to avoid problems by purchasing a new $10,000 computer system that officials from Taylor Business Systems said will prevent any problems when the calendar year changes to 2000.

For the last few years, computer gurus have been warning the public about the impending peril of 2000. Virtually every computer system is built to go through Dec. 31, 1999, but when 2000 hits, many computers will record the date as 1900.

Imagine a light bill that's due in Jan 15, 2000, but the computer reads it as being due Jan. 15, 1900. The late charges would be astronomical, and citizens would be storming the Bastille to get their bills changed.

That's just one of the many scenarios that could unfold if the country's computer systems aren't fixed by the end of next year.

"Most of these software issues are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year to bring us into compliance," Tyler said this week. She doesn't expect added costs to eliminate the problem to approach the amount Senoia is spending.

"Each entity is different," she said. "Probably, Senoia has older computers. If they weren't budgeting for upgrades, that would be tied directly to the expense."

Senoia was presented with an option of purchasing a used system from Stockbridge that was Year 2000-compatible or purchasing a new system.

If the city purchased Stockbridge's system, the city would only have a limited amount of warranty and registration time left on the software before it would have to buy its own, said Senoia Mayor Joan Trammell.

In Peachtree City, technology committee members found most of the financial, payroll, and most of the recreation department's computer systems are in good shape, and the city's network system is compliant. Still needing upgrades are the police, fire and library networks and some court PCs.

Other areas Tyler said need to be addressed are light timers, computer chips in cars, HVAC systems and "anything automatic." Global positioning systems, automated security systems, programmable telephone switches and some meter data collecting systems are also at risk of the Year 2000 problem at the municipal level.

Serving on the city's technology committee are System Administrator Brad Williams; Betsy Tyler and Jane Miller, administration; Rich Jenkins, police; Stony Lohr, fire; Richard Matthews, library; Joe Morton, finance; Troy Besseche, engineering; Colin Halterman, public works; and Marcie Blind, purchasing. Savannah Rogers contributed to this report.