After a brief executive session during the South Alabama Gas (SAG) District’s March board meeting Tuesday night in Evergreen, the board voted to form Gulf States Gas District (GSGD) along with the cities of Evergreen and Brewton.
Mark Burgess, SAG’s chief executive officer, said the new entity will solely be used to purchase large amounts of natural gas through a prepay program.
He said the City of Monroeville, which is a founding member of SAG, gave him permission for SAG to participate in the formation of the new entity.
“We’ve been working on forming the Gulf States Gas District for two and a half years and we finally filed the papers,” said Burgess. “We’re recognized as a new gas district by the state, and we are to appoint two representatives to the new board.”
Board President Brenda Dean recommended Excel Mayor Jenny Countryman, but she said her schedule would be a conflict.
Dean then recommended Maxine Harris and John Skinner fill the seats. They agreed. Burgess said the board would probably hold quarterly meetings.
He also asked the board to allow SAG to participate in a prepay program through L.A. Gas (LAG) District, which was created several years ago by SAG and Clarke-Mobile Gas District.
Burgess said the LAG purchase will amount to 7,000mmbtus per day.
As for January’s financial report, Burgess said the month was warmer than normal and February was a lot warmer than average, but the district should still be in line with the FY19 budget by April.
Burgess also said Thompson Gas, which purchased SAG’s propane division a few months ago, has terminated its lease of office space with SAG.
On another matter, the board agreed to allow Burgess to engage the accounting services of Andreoli, Robertson and Covington for SAG’s FY19 audit. He said the fee will be about 20 to 25 percent less due to the liquidation of the propane division.
SAG’s April meeting will be held April 1 at Monroeville City Hall at 6 p.m.
