Council may chop 4 Kedron Fieldhouse jobs; Aquatic Center swimming fees to rise

One full-time and three part-time positions at the Kedron Fieldhouse and Aquatic Center are on the chopping block at Thursday night’s meeting of the Peachtree City Council.

Also on tap is a decision on pursuing an 18-acre annexation on Ga. Highway 74 South next to Meade Field to allow sewer service for a shopping center that has already been approved for development by Fayette County officials.

The job cut proposal includes six weeks of severance pay and medical insurance coverage. The positions that will be eliminated include a full-time leisure program coordinator and part-time positions of customer service representative, maintenance technician II and maintenance technician III.

Of those positions, only one of the part-time jobs is currently vacant, meaning three employees will be out of a job instead of four, according to city officials.

The staff cuts will reduce expenses by $100,000 a year, according to a staff memo. Already this year, the city has axed 27 employees, including 24 landscaping/maintenance workers and four members of the city’s building department.

Another proposal on tap Thursday night is the adoption of fees for swim teams that use the facility. The new fees would bring in an additional $22,692 in revenue for the aquatic center above the current $9,000 in fees.

The new fees would be assessed hourly, with $3 per lane per hour for all school teams (14-week season, $7.50 per swimmer per month) and masters teams (10-month seasons, $12 per swimmer per month). The Southern Crescent Aquatic Team will pay $4 per hour (11-month season, $19 per swimmer per month).

The fees are less than the $32 per month per swimmer originally suggested by city staff.

According to city staff, the high school and masters teams have very few out-of-county swimmers and SCAT has about 10 percent of its swimmers living out of county.

The annexation involves a request from Southern Pines Properties Commercial Group to rezone 3.86 acres along the highway for general commercial and the remaining 14.14 acres to be zoned open space for the future expansion of Meade Field.

The 18 acres are part of an 80-acre parcel owned by SPP that runs past the current intersection of Hwy. 74 and Redwine Road. On that 80-acre tract, SPP in 2000 won a rezoning from Fayette County to allow retail and commercial uses on 21.8 of those acres and office-institutional uses on 5.79 acres. Nothing has been built on the land yet.

If ultimately approved by the City Council, the annexation would grant SPP access to the city’s sewer system to serve the entire development, including the portion that would remain in the county. In doing so, SPP would avoid having to install a septic system with a large drain field.

Even if the city grants permission for SPP to work with city staff, that will only begin the process of considering the proposal. A second vote at a later date would determine whether the property should be annexed into the city limits.

If the annexation is approved, the 3.86-acre tract would have to be developed according to city ordinances and regulations, leaving the remainder of the development to be handled under Fayette County standards.

If the annexation is approved, the sewer constructed for the area could also be designed to serve the nearby county animal shelter, an office complex currently in the city limits and several other properties that are currently outside the city limits along Redwine Road.

The city’s Water and Sewer Authority has worked for some time on a proposal between several property owners including SPP to chip in towards the installation of a new sewer line to serve the area.

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