Council may call for new bids on Westside station

TIFTON — The original bid requests mailed in December for design of the Westside Fire Station have been scrapped. Tifton Fire Chief Mike Flippo requested Monday night that the Tifton City Council request previous bids on the project since plans have changed.

The project was originally intended to include a fire station and a new E-911 center. The Tift County Board of Commissioners decided not to include the E-911 center with the project, Flippo said.

Flippo requested that city council reject the previous bids and move for a new list of qualifications for the changed project. The city is considering beginning a new bidding process on the project.

Flippo said a research and planning team for the station remodeling suggested combining the Westside station project with a Chula station project, utilizing the same construction company for both sites to secure a discount.

The Westside project, Flippo said, will use approximately $400,000 of Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST III) funds and the Chula project will require around $200,000 in SPLOST IV funds.

Tifton Police Chief Jim Smith recommended that the council deny an application for an Alcoholic Beverage License from Jeet Jiten at Volume Billiards and Restaurant, formerly known as What’s Next Billiards, 510 South Tift Ave.

While the applicant had no background violations, Smith said he recommended the denial because the area where the business operates has been a problem in the past and the license for the location (under a previous owner) has been suspended or revoked. He said that neighboring business owners have often called with complaints about the customers, noise and parking issues.

Section 6-64 of the city’s Alcoholic Beverage License ordinance states that city council can deny an alcoholic beverage license to any location where a license has been suspended/revoked and where, “In the opinion of the city council, there exists the likelihood that the utilization of such license at such location would cause or necessitate greater than normal police activity, observation or inspection in order to either prevent violation of laws or to maintain public order...due to activities or conduct of patrons of the business.”

“It is recognized in law that some locations turn out to be bad locations for on-site consumption,” City Attorney Greg Sowell said.

Action will be decided at the next Tifton City Council meeting to be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 5. Council members will have the choice of granting the license or tabling it for a hearing at a later date.

To contact reporter Chivaun Perez, call 382-4321.

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