Peachtree City will be renovating and expanding its southernmost fire station.

Last week the City Council approved a $224,000 contract to renovate and expand Fire Station 83 in Braelinn Village. The facility, which originally opened in 1989, would include new sleeping quarters for up to seven personnel with individual partitions as opposed to the beds in a single open space room. The renovation will also modify space in the kitchen/dining area and make the existing “dormitory” a dayroom for meetings, personal study time and relaxation periods, according to a memo from Fire Marshal John Dailey.

The city had budgeted $127,000 initially for the project and the remaining $98,000 will come from the contingency fund from the 2007 public improvement program, according to the memo.

FIre Chief Ed Eiswerth said the initial cost was low in part because it has been in the planning stages for the past four to five years. He also said the department’s previous leadership declined to raise the cost a few years ago even though it was known the estimate was too low.

Mayor Harold Logsdon noted this approval would leave $32,711 in the contingency fund from the 2007 PIP, and he asked if the city had any other outstanding projects that might need the funds. City Manager Bernie McMullen noted that the police department renovation and repair is still outstanding. There is another $200,000 of contingency funds available in the 2008 PIP budget, and the city also has $200,000 available from the money that was reimbursed from Fayette County which the city had paid for construction of the TDK Boulevard extension which was ultimately scrapped.

“We have six different PIP contingency accounts,” McMullen said, noting that some ongoing projects date back to 2005 when they were initially funded. The money is left in the accounts for each separate year as long as there are projects tied back to the funds which aren’t complete yet, he added.

“If you look at all our contingency right now we have $557,000 for all the projects out there right now that are uncompleted,” McMullen said.

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