ROBERTSDALE — At its meeting Sept. 6, the Robertsdale City Council approved an electrical contract with a Georgia company and approved bids for upgrades to the electrical system.

The $4.3 million electrical expansion was also part of the city’s $20.2 million in expenditures for the 2016-17 fiscal year budget, approved at the meeting.

In July, Mayor Charles Murphy announced that the city finalized contract negotiations with the Municipal Electric Association of Georgia (MEAG).

Based in Atlanta, MEAG is a cooperative that provides electrical systems to 47 municipalities and one county-managed system in Georgia. The contract went before a panel, which is comprised of representatives from eight municipal systems in the MEAG group.

After the contract was approved by the panel, the proposal went before the group’s monthly board meeting for approval in August. Murphy and several council members attended that meeting.

“I just want to say for any of the council members who weren’t able to make that trip, that I was very, very impressed with MEAG,” said Council member Paul Hollingsworth. “I get the feeling that we are working with top-notch, professional people who know what they are doing.”

The city currently contracts with the Southern Company. The contract, which was negotiated in 2012, is set to run out Dec. 31, 2017.

“Before 2012, we were in a contract with two other municipalities, Troy and Evergreen, in which we could contract over a period of five to eight years with a fixed rate,” said Murphy at the July meeting.

But in 2012, the Southern Company announced that it would split the cities up and rates would be negotiated based on current return, causing the rates to fluctuate from year-to-year, Murphy said.

“By the end of 2015, our wholesale power rates had increased by 28 percent,” Murphy said, “and by the end of contract, we will see an increase in rates of 32 percent over that five-year period.”

Under the terms of the contract, the city had to inform the Southern Company at least two years in advance that they were looking for other sources to provide power, which was done at the end of 2015, Murphy said.

At the beginning of 2016, the city asked for price proposals and received six responses, Murphy said.

In March, the city council authorized Murphy to negotiate the contract with the help of city attorney Ken Raines and a Washington, D.C., law firm that specializes in energy contract negotiations. The contract was finalized June 29, Murphy said.

The new electrical rates will take effect in January of 2018.

The new contract would bring the town’s wholesale electrical costs back to 2012 levels, Murphy said, and that savings would be passed on to consumers.

The eight-year contract will run from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2025. The contract covers only power generation fees, not power transmission, or SEPA fees, which are fixed by federal law, Murphy said.

Also at the Sept. 6 meeting, the council also approved bid results with Stewart Engineering electrical consultants, based in Anniston, to streamline the city’s electrical system.

Under the terms of the contract, the project would:

•Retain the 115 KV service point at the County Road 48 Substation, located just west of College Avenue.

•The East Substation, which is currently built to step down from 46 KV to 12 KV, will be dismantled, leaving the County Road 48 Substation as the only delivery point.

•All remaining downtown four KV distribution lines would be converted to 12 KV distribution lines at an estimated cost of $600,000.

•The city’s two four KV substations, the North Substation, located at St. Paul Street, just south of Michigan Street; and the South Substation, located on St. Paul Street, just south of Nebraska Street, would be dismantled using in-house labor.

•Several of the existing distribution lines would be upgraded at an estimated cost of $800,000.

The estimated $4.3 million upgrade was part of the city’s 2016-17 fiscal year budget approved at the Sept. 6 meeting.

Budget figures call for projected revenues of $22.3 million with expenses of $20.2 million for a $2 million. In addition the city has short term debt projected at $245,472 for the coming fiscal year, along with bond payments of $1.6 million for a net surplus of $199,163.

The city’s electrical budget tops the list with projected revenues of $13.7 million and expenses of $2.1 million for a surplus of $2.1 million. This will balance a deficit of $801,034 in the city’s general fund with projected expenses of $5.7 million and revenues projected at $6.5 million.

There is a projected $604,821 surplus in the water department with expenses of $726,929 and revenues of $1.3 million along with a $159,014 surplus in the sewer department, with projected revenues of $1.3 million and expenses of $1.2 million. The city’s gas department will operate with a deficit of $48,636 ($130,000 in projected revenues with projected expenses of $178,636).

Also on Sept. 6, the council:

•Approved a renewal from the Robertsdale High School Football Booster Club.

•Announced that the band and the art department at Robertsdale High School will be selling bags at a cost of $30 to benefit the art and band departments, with some of the proceeds benefitting the USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital’s cancer unit for children with cancer.

•Approved an ad for the upcoming Honeybee Festival with Gulf Coast Media at a cost of $714.

•Approved the Robertsdale Fire Department’s use of a house in Robertsdale for a control burn training exercise.