The $350,654 purchase of nine new Ford Explorer pursuit vehicles for the Henry County Police Department was approved by the Board of Commissioners at its April 6 regular meeting.
The vehicles will be provided by Wade Ford of Smyrna, and the cost is based on the pricing provided by a state contract, with funds coming from the county’s capital account. As part of this purchase, the vehicles will be outfitted with lighting, consoles, radio equipment and printers.
In other business, the board voted to accept a $23,000 federal grant for the county airport. The money is a portion of nearly $2 billion set aside in the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriation Act, signed into law in December, intended to provide economic relief to eligible U.S. airports to prevent, prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of $1,510,648 will be distributed by the Georgia Department of Transportation to general aviation airports across the state. This particular grant will be applied to the purchase of aviation fuel. No local match is required for these funds.
Two new expenditures requested by the county stormwater department were approved. One was an $81,750 bid from Moore Bass Consulting, a McDonough firm, for mapping services to update impervious area measurements of non-residential areas in the unincorporated county. Also approved was a $74,182 bid from a Lawrenceville company for construction of storm drainage improvements on Upper Woolsey Road.
A $144,261 allocation for utility relocation related to improvements at the intersection of Mill Road and Mt. Carmel Road was approved. The cost to have the Henry County Water Authority move a portion of its facilities is about 9 percent of the total construction cost, according to officials. The project is funded by the county’s special-purpose local option sales tax.
The commissioners approved a $387,047 contract with Vulcan Materials for various quarry stone items as needed by the county DOT and other departments. Also approved was a $10,626 annual contract with a Dacula company for pest control services.
The board approved a new street light district for the Traditions at Crystal Lake subdivision and the addition of one street light in the Eagle’s Landing Country Club subdivision.
