The Fayette Citizen-News Page
Friday, December 18, 1998
While foreign trade zone status is still uncertain, development authority adopts $1.7 million budget; $800K for tennis

By KAY S. PEDROTTI
Staff Writer

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Peachtree City's status as a Foreign Trade Zone is still up in the air, but meetings scheduled within the next month should clear the way for official federal approval of that status, Jim Cromwell told the Peachtree City Development Authority Monday.

The authority originally had applied through Atlanta's Georgia Foreign Trade Zone Inc. to have "grantee" status for benefitting local companies, primarily in the city's Ga. Highway 74 south industrial park area. Then a decision was made to seek the status for Peachtree City, independent of GFTZ, but Cromwell says that U.S. Department of Commerce officials have questioned why there are "two applications on the same acreage."

He said his contact with the commerce department's Foreign Trade Zone Board wants the situation clarified, and that meetings are set between GFTZ and authority members for that purpose.

PCDA Chairman Tom Farr said that "perhaps some arrangement can be made for common marketing" with GFTZ. If approved, Peachtree City's acreage would become Georgia's fourth Foreign Trade Zone with Atlanta, Savannah and Brunswick. Cromwell said that three local companies have signed "letters of intent" to participate, another is in the application process, and three more are "crunching the numbers" to see what their participation would mean to the companies.

BUDGET SET

The authority also approved its fiscal year 1998-99 budget after several months of discussion. The document shows anticipated revenues of $1,676,600, to come from hotel-motel tax, $400,000; amphitheater operations, $629,900; tennis center operations, $639,200; interest, $7,500.

Expenses are estimated about $24,000 higher, but Farr said the authority still has reserve funds and some revenues are expected which can't be listed yet. Outflows are:

Administration, $2,500; employee benefits, $30,000; interest expense, $15,000; legal and accounting, $30,000; economic development, $29,000; amphitheater, $648,825; tennis center, $800,400; Foreign Trade Zone, $69,000; bank loans, $75,000; other, $1,000.


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