City of Gainesville and Chattahoochee Country Club administrators are busy working out the details of a contract that could possibly extend their relationship for 10 more years.

Last year, the city entered into a corporate golf agreement with the club that became effective Jan. 1, 2009, and was set to expire on Dec. 31.

During the council’s work session Thursday, the group discussed possibly extending the contract through Feb. 28 to give the two parties an opportunity to work out the details of a new contract.

"We have been negotiating the contract with a possible 10-year term for the past several months," said Rodger Hogan, a club official.

"But we haven’t been able to come to an agreement yet."

The resolution for the temporary extension is set to expire upon negotiation of a new longterm contract, or Feb. 28, whichever comes first.

In other business, Gainesville Fire Chief Jon Canada requested permission to accept a bid for a new fire engine. The bid preferred by Canada, which he said was also the lowest, is for two Rosenbauer engines costing $508,990 each. Money for the engines was budgeted in the FY2010 Capital Improvement Project budget and also in the budget for the new Public Safety Complex Building
project, funded by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax VI.

"We would be keeping the old ones to use as reserves," Canada said. "Three out of four of our front-line engines are approaching 90,000 miles. It would take about a year to get the new truck, so we’re getting ahead of that by putting in the request now."

Canada also informed the council that now would be a good time to put the older engines on reserves "while the maintenance costs were relatively low."

No action was taken during the work session. The council isn’t expected to act until the group’s regular meeting on Tuesday at the Georgia Mountains Center at 301 Main St.