County commissioners approve bid for new emergency medical center

Published 1:37 pm Wednesday, July 30, 2025

The Decatur County Commissioners met for their second meeting of the month on Tuesday, July 22. The first item of new business on the agenda was consideration of a bid approval for six generators. According to county administrator Alan Thomas, last year the county received a grant of $645,846 for six generators to be placed at various county services and infrastructure. The federal share of the grant, Thomas stated, was $484,385, the state share was $64,585, and the local share was $96,877. The county received a single bidder, Dee’s Electric Company, with a price of $577,460. The county voted to approve the bid.

Following this, the council then heard a bid for roadway striping, with a bid of $306,033.30, with the winning bidder being Peek Pavement Marking LLC. The commissioners approved.

The next new item of business was an audit engagement letter; according to Thomas, the county’s previous auditor no longer performs audits, and as a result, the county has requested the services of Grimsley and Associates for the upcoming calendar years. This was also approved.

Next, the commissioners heard consideration for approval of an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Bainbridge. Specifically, in a previous meeting, the county and city had considered transferring parking lots with each other; both lots are located adjacent to downtown Bainbridge. This transfer agreement was approved by the commissioners.

Moving on, the commissioners were presented a termination of agreement letter, terminating the previous relationship with Grady and Decatur County 9-1-1. This matter had been discussed in previous years. The commissioners voted to approve the letter, and gave Thomas the authority to negotiate the details.

The next item on the agenda was approval of engineering and architectural services for a county emergency medical center. This center would house county fire, EMS, and 9-1-1 dispatch. There were four proposals presented; following some discussion, the commissioners opted to go with the suggested Jericho Design Group. The Jericho Design proposal included a fee proposal of 7.25% of the construction cost, and an additional cost of $32,500, with negotiations possible for the fee proposal. Jericho was also the most experienced and most recommended company that submitted a proposal. The expected completion date is December of 2027.

After this, the commissioners went into executive session, during which they discussed personnel and land acquisition, with no decision made. After this, the meeting was adjourned.