Local leaders and members of the South Alabama Regional Airport Authority have two prospects interested in the airport’s twin hangars.
Jacob Morgan of the Covington County Economic Development Commission said his organization hosted a prospect last Friday who is looking to expand and possibly start a pilot training program.
“This is legitimate,” Morgan said. “These people are proven, and they’re doing a good job.
“Our infrastructure really impressed them. Hopefully, we will hear some more news about this soon. It could be a great thing, and definitely change this airport for the good.”
The prospects looked at the community college, airport facilities, and joined local political leaders for lunch.
CCEDC’s executive director, Rick Clifton, has a follow-up meeting with the company at the national Helio Expo this week, Morgan said.
Meanwhile, Jed Blackwell, director of South Alabama Regional Airport, said a second company which previously has shown interest in the twin hangars, will be on site this Friday to go through the facility and ensure it meets federal fire code requirements for government aircraft. The prospect is interested in leasing the facility for 18 months, Blackwell said.
The twin hangars were built in the early mid-2000s to house C130s for a company that planned to do work here. However, the government contract work never materialized, and the airport authority has had a number of short-term tenants since then.
At present, the hangars are not leased, which means the debt on the building – held separately by Covington County, the City of Andalusia and the City of Opp – is being paid by taxpayers. Under an agreement SARA has with those three entities, 5 percent of lease payments goes into a maintenance fund at the airport. With no rent coming in for the facility, those maintenance funds are being quickly depleted.
Soon, the Andalusia Police Department’s dispatcher will be able to simultaneously listen to a caller, see the caller’s location on a map, and determine which officer could respond quickly, based on the officer’s current location.
The capability will come with the help of computer aided dispatch software, which the council agreed Tuesday night to purchase. The software will cost $63,640, which is being partially offset by a $24,000 grant the department recently received from ADECA.
Danny McKinley, who sold the software to the APD, was on hand to answer questions, and said Covington County E911 and the Covington County Sheriff’s Department also is considering the software.
“If they go with this, you would be able to transfer cad to cad,” he said. “The same screen can be seen and transferred to other agencies.”
Chief Paul Hudson said the system also will shorten the response times for calls for service, and provide communications officers with important information to provide to the officers including, call history as related to location, similar incidents or active warrants for service on all calls for service dispatched by the Andalusia Police Department.
The Andalusia City Council on Tuesday adopted an ordinance authorizing a $7.6 million bond issue for construction projects at Andalusia High School. The bond deal is expected to be finalized in the next 10 days.
In January, the city board of education approved a $9.3 million contract with Wyatt Sasser Construction for renovations at the stadium and auditorium. The contract represents a base bid. If all of the proposed project is done, it is expected to cost $12.245 million.
The school board has set aside $500,000 of its proceeds from a city-wide education sales tax in fiscal years 2016, 2017 and 2018. Rep. Mike Jones has secured $1.25 million in state funds, and the Public Education Building Authority has raised a minimum of $500,000 in private monies for the project.
With a $7 million bond, the system has $10.25 million for the project. The remaining estimated $1.99 million will be taken from reserve funds.
Small Idaho city added fiber as municipal utility
In much the same way that economic development and prosperity followed the availability of electricity in the 20th Century, development today is correlated to the availability of broadband
Broadband, also referred to as high-speed Internet, is telecommunications that provide a variety of channels of data over a single communication medium. And the City of Andalusia’s leaders are considering adding broadband to the utilities offered by the municipality.
“I am of the opinion it may be on our shoulders to see that the infrastructure is in place,” Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson told council members Tuesday night. The mayor made his comments before having council members review a 19-minute video chronicling the efforts of Ammon, Idaho, to do just that.
The city of more than 15,000 people “is taking its destiny in its own hands,” the mayor said. The city installed broadband infrastructure, and sold its excess capacity. It has built its network slowly, and has no debt associated with the infrastructure.
Ammon is using a Local Improvement District (LID) approach to connect premises to the infrastructure. The city determines the boundaries of where the project will occur and property owners have the opportunity at the beginning of the process to pay for connecting to the network by attaching the cost over 20 years to their property. If property owners don’t take advantage of the opportunity during this window of time and decide later to connect, they must pay the estimated $3,000 – $5,000 out of pocket.
In the video viewed by the council and available online, Ammon’s Bruce Patterson, technology director, explained that the network enhanced public safety, which is in the middle of the city’s charter, provided more choices for internet for home owners; and enhanced business development.
“This is being replicated all over America,” Johnson said Tuesday. “The video frames up the issues for you. This would be a long, long thing, and I’m not suggesting we do it now. I am suggesting it is something we start thinking about.”
Two weeks ago, the mayor put Mediacom, one of Andalusia’s major internet service providers, on notice, citing complaints from local businesses about broadband service. The city might need to become an Internet provider, the mayor said, for the good of local businesses.
““This city will not grow or attract businesses and industries that we want here unless they can be assured the broadband and television services that are necessary to run a business,” he said. “A lot of businesses, if they don’t have broadband, it shuts their business down. It’s a serious thing.”
Additional information is available at muninetworks.org or nextcenturycities.org.
