Commissioners agreed to back a grant request for $3.1 million in federal stimulus funds that Fire Chief David Hawkins said allow for the construction of a new fire station to replace the one at Cash and Redbud Road.
The new station would likely be located in the Cash Road/ Covington Bridge Road area, Hawkins said. This move would fulfill the recommendation made during the county’s last ISO inspection, he said, that the county have a more centrally-located station. Hawkins said the area has a “high call volume” and is growing with the recent additions of a high school and middle school.
If the county gets the money, the funds will come through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Assistance to Firefighters Grant. The county would be responsible for a supplying 10 percent, or just more than $300,000, of the total grant money.
Word on whether the grant application is successful will come in six moths to a year, Hawkins said, and actual construction would have to take place within a year of the grant award.
The new station’s design would be much like the new one in Resaca, he said, but with special attention to environmental matters. It would be built “as green as possible,” he said. Other changes would include 80-foot bays and the addition of a third bay.
Also during the July 7 meeting, commissioners:
* Approved a bid award for Prater Ford for a 2010 4x4 F150 at $18 672 to replace a 1989 model truck. The bid was “well below” the county’s budgeted amount of $25,000, Dowling said.
* Approved the reappointment of Thomas Owens to the Calhoun/ Gordon County Airport Authority for a three-year tem that will expire June 30, 2012.
* Approved an annual contract with the public defenders’ office.
* Voted to disposed of six vehicles confiscated by the drug task force via public auction.
With no good east west roads how does the fire chief expect to cover the East and West sides of Gordon Co from a Cash/Covington Bridge Rd location.
We need a long term fire plan with fire stations spread out all over the county where the most serious accidents can occur, on rail and major highways and where dangerious things are produced such as a chemical plant. We are pouring more money out without a real plan.