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Gainesville finds surplus after safety building completed
Fire department to donate equipment
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The effects of Gainesville's new public safety building continue to reverberate through the city's departments.

Public works crews, who planned to repair roads near the building, can now put funds toward other streets, and the fire department can donate old supplies to other organizations.

The two departments brought forward their proposals at Thursday's Gainesville City Council work session.

"We originally budgeted to resurface Banks, Grove, High and Pine streets in 2010, but parts of those were already done with the construction of the new building," said Stan Aiken, senior civil engineer in the public works department. "Since the remainder of those roads are actually pretty good, we want to resurface other road segments that don't rate as high."

The city's engineering division rates every street segment once a year, and streets with the lowest rating are marked as high-priority spots. Those roads are matched with repair and equipment costs to rank projects for the next year.

The previously budgeted $125,000 will cover Lenox Drive between U.S. 129 and Cannon Ridge Court, North Avenue between Ivey Terrace and Northside Drive, North Avenue between Green Street and Candler Square, Glenwood Drive between Springdale Road and Summerfield Terrace and Glenwood Drive between Chattahoochee Drive and Laurel Lane.

"We've identified these short segments to be good for patching," Aiken said. "That work should start this summer."

Council members also approved a proposal from the Gainesville Fire Department to donate surplus equipment.

The 12 bedding sets, complete with headboards, footboards, mattresses and box springs, were used at the Jesse Jewell Parkway fire station but aren't needed at the Pine Street location.

"We purchased some new beds to fit into the new station, and early on last year, we knew we would have some leftovers after moving," Fire Chief Jon Canada said. "We had a few requests for the leftovers, and now that we're settled in, we can send those out."

The beds will be split between the Clayton Volunteer Fire Department in Rabun County and the Clermont Masonic Lodge.

"The beds will help the charity organizational work that these groups do, so we decided these would be good places to send the beds," Canada said. "It's great that these organizations can put them to use."