The Peachtree City Council last week approved a $19.7 million budget that includes average across-the-board pay increases for city workers of nearly 6 percent.

The boosted city pay scales include increases of more than $3,000 a year for a rookie police officer.

The average pay increase city-wide is 5.57 percent. Largest increases are in library and public safety personnel, city officials said, where the average increase for a library employee is 12.83 percent and for public safety (police and fire) employees 9.89 percent.

Betsy Tyler, city information officer, pointed out that library assistants formerly made $6.13 an hour and will be raised to $7.76 per hour, a 26 percent increase. Beginning salary for police officers was $23,049 but will now be at $26,460, an increase of almost 15 percent.

The council approved the budget for the coming fiscal year with no comments from the public. That's not unusual, according to City Manager Jim Basinger.

The well-announced and advertised meeting last Thursday included a "public hearing" on the budget, but no one responded to Basinger's periodic pauses in the explanations to ask for questions.

Mayor Bob Lenox, who usually announces a public hearing and invites comments from residents, did not specifically do so. Basinger said after the meeting that he kept expecting questions, but that generally few comments are made on the budget each year.

The city has carryover funds from the fiscal 1998 budget, and anticipated revenue increases, which will enable pay raises for city employees, hiring new personnel, building a new fire station, upgrading police equipment, and running the city with a slight decrease in expenses for City Hall and the Building Department.

Total budget for fiscal 1999 is $19,771,566, which includes a public improvement program (PIP) budget figure of $4,720,675. In the next year, PIP spending is expected to include $500,000 for street resurfacing; $102,000 for cart path resurfacing; four new baseball fields at $578,120; $25,000 for renovating the Braelinn baseball field; $420,880 for the training room and third bay at the Leach Fire Station; $25,000 for a comprehensive water management program; $136,250 for police vehicle leasing, and other projects.

The 1999 program costs were set in the "revised five-year plan" at $2,510,893, but this year's budget includes also a recycling grant of $80,000, and $2,129,782 in rebudgeted items. The council and city staff constantly review and update the improvements program, Basinger said.

The budget was unanimously approved, with Lenox commenting that it "increases all major service delivery areas where we impact our citizenry, and makes us able to hire and retain good people, which has been one of our goals ... we will always encourage city employees to see our citizens as customers and treat them accordingly."

The council also heard a report from insurance consultant Joe Byrd on the possibility of departing in some areas from the city's self-insurance program and obtaining outside insurance, at least for catastrophic coverage. The city's self-insurance fund has now achieved the goal of a reserve of more than a million dollars, Byrd said. The largest single claim against the city so far has been for $150,000, said council member Annie McMenamin.

Council agreed to ask Byrd for an analysis of current premium costs, deductibles and coverages available.