Amarillo City Council approves $5 million contract for fueling centers

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Amarillo City Council approved a $5 million contract for two fueling center locations to provide efficiency and quicker turnaround time for city vehicles.

The City of Amarillo has over 1,000 vehicles that have to be fueled on a daily basis. The current fuel pump system was installed in 1988 and is in need of some updates.

“The new center is going to allow us to get our vehicles through there quicker. If they have any kind of delay before they get out, that of course affects our service delivery, and we want to make sure our service delivery is best as it can be. So this new site, we are excited about it. It’s been a long time coming for us and it’s just going to be a way for us to do better business for the citizens of Amarillo,” said Donny Hooper, managing director for the City of Amarillo Public Works.

“The investment into the fueling center will help us increase efficiency and save money by fueling and servicing city vehicles much faster than we do now. By improving the turnaround time, we are able to put employees back on the streets providing services instead of them being stuck waiting for their vehicle,” said Les Simpson, Amarillo City Council member.

The construction project was approved by the city council budget and will be funded through fleet fund revenues.

“This was all stuff approved in the budget, so obviously we’ve been thinking about this for a long time and making sure funds were in place, and then council of course approved that during budget process for us move forward with it,” said Hooper.

Bids were approved for construction at the last council meeting.

“We’re looking at probably a little over a year for construction of both of those sites, but we are going to be starting on those as quickly as we can get the contract on the ground and get them working,” said Hooper.

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