10 years , and it more than paid for itself through sales of carbon credits . That particular initiative is on hold due to market conditions , but the county has explored other options to harness the byproduct for generating electricity or fueling vehicles with compressed methane .
A fee is charged when anyone makes a delivery to the scrap tire facility . The metal collected is sold for scrap , and , currently , a paper mill in Georgia buys the rubber for fuel . “ There ’ s tremendous energy in tires . I wanted to be on the front end of that ,” Tindell said . “ It might be a significant future revenue stream for the county , as well as protecting the environment .”
Buildings & Grounds
Coffee is one of the few counties in Alabama that has assigned oversight of buildings and grounds to the engineer . When Tindell ’ s phone rings , it might be a complaint about a pothole , but it could just as easily be “ anything
We stand a better chance statewide ,” he said , “ convincing legislators as a whole to go out on a limb for their constituents than what Coffee County would by itself .
Randy Tindell ’ s first tour of duty in Coffee County was as assistant engineer under Mark Pool in the late 1980s and early 1990s .
from a toilet not flushing to ‘ we need to add a new wing on ,’” he said , laughing .
Coming to a close is one round of capital improvements that included energy conservation projects for all county buildings . The energy savings are sufficient to repay the loan for this batch of improvements . Looking ahead ,
the commission asked Administrator Rod Morgan and Tindell to find a way to pay for expenses that can be anticipated without borrowing money .
Under normal conditions a new roof might be expected to last for decades , but it won ’ t last forever . With that in mind , the commission has established a mechanism to set money aside for these longer-range projects .
“ At the end of 20 years , there will be enough money in the account to do what we had to borrow to do this time ,” Tindell said .
For all Coffee County ’ s resilience , entrepreneurship and ingenuity , it needs the Alabama Legislature to invest in local roads and bridges this year about as badly as any county .
“ We have desperate needs on local roads ,” Tindell said . “ There is no funding available to counties like us .”
A past president of the Association of County Engineers of Alabama , he said this is a time for counties to stick together .
“ We stand a better chance statewide ,” he said , “ convincing legislators as a whole to go out on a limb for their constituents than what Coffee County would by itself .” n
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