Albany Commission reaches new fuel agreement

ALBANY — The Albany City Commission formally authorized construction of a passenger boarding bridge at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport at a briskly-paced but busy meeting Tuesday night.

The board also signed off on a $2.5 million contract with Brad Lanier Oil Co. of Albany to supply fuel for the city’s fleet and a $129,255 contract with Mobile Communications of Albany to provide emergency equipment for 35 recently purchased Ford Taurus Police Interceptors.

The board also executed a five-year agreement with Tetra Tech Inc. to provide debris monitoring services and professional technical services on an as-needed basis for any natural or human-caused disaster or other emergency situation during that period.

The Dougherty County Commission recently approved a similar deal with the company.

“This is really for consulting services and disaster response debris monitoring,” City Manager Sharon Subadan said. “The federal government requires us to have that kind of service in the event of a presidentially-declared disaster. The company that won the bid (Tetra Tech) has worked with us through these types of emergencies and has done a good job.

“I think it’s important to note that we do not pay them a dime to put this agreement in place. We pay them if there is another disaster, and the cost is reimbursable. What this also does is it bulletproofs us from protests (that held up storm debris removal after Hurricane Michael) and takes away the time-consuming process (of negotiating an agreement) in the future. In the midst of a crisis is not the time to do this type of administrative work.”

Also at the meeting, the board:

— Approved an alcohol license application for Pilot Travel Center No. 260 at 310 Cordele Road;

— OK’d an alcohol license transfer for JMD Food Mart at 1800 E. Oglethorpe Blvd.;

— Agreed to terminate for “administrative convenience” a past Commerce Department economic development revolving loan fund that staff said “would not impact future funding” but was currently “jeopardizing program compliance”;

— Scheduled a public hearing for Dec. 11 at 8:30 a.m. to discuss Norfolk Southern Railway’s petition to close the railroad grade crossings at Third Avenue and Seventh Avenue.