The South Central Kentucky Regional Development Authority is nearly tapped out. The authority, formed by Warren County Fiscal Court in March 2001 to buy land for the proposed Kentucky TriModal Transpark, has about $600,000 left of the $6 million it raised by issuing short-term notes in October 2001. Thats just enough to pay off the notes remaining interest by October 2003, according to an audit by accounting firm BKD.The audit was presented at the authoritys board meeting Friday morning, and gave the authority a clean report on its financial practices. It covered the fiscal year ending June 30.The authority has spent more than $5 million on land for the transpark, a project planned to go between Bowling Green and Oakland with a large industrial park and eventually a major airport on 4,000 acres with access to the main CSX rail line and Interstate 65.Fiscal court agreed in February 2001 to issue $25 million in long-term bonds so the ITA could buy land and build the project. But that bond issue is tied up in the Kentucky Court of Appeals by transpark opponent Joey Roberts of Smiths Grove. Roberts challenged the state Local Debt Officers review that approved the bond issue, lost and appealed. Both sides await the judges opinion, which could take a year to 18 months from the time the final briefs for the appeal were filed, which was October, according to the court of appeals clerks office. To bypass the legal challenge, the county formed the authority to issue $6 million in short-term notes and buy land until the $25 million becomes available. The current schedule calls for groundbreaking on the industrial park in the first quarter of 2003, ITA President Dan Cherry said. He expects the first 240-acre section to approach full occupancy by 2005, at which point the ITA would begin developing a second 240-acre parcel, moving from west to east until it fills 1,200 acres. The ITA has spent $280,920 of its original 1998 $6 million grant from the state to buy key parcels for the project, Cherry said. It still has about $2 million left, but will probably not be buying much more land with it, he said. For the authority to issue further short-term notes to keep the project rolling in anticipation that the $25 million issue will eventually be allowed to proceed is unreasonable, because of the probable necessary interest rate, according to a July 11 report to the authority from Frankfort-based investment banker and financial adviser Terrell Ross. That means SCKRDAs job will be done once the final interest payments are made and the $25 million in bonds are issued, Cherry said. The board of directors could then vote to dissolve unless they want to turn the authority to another use, he said.