EUFAULA, Ala. — The Coast Guard has backed off plans to close a station that helps maintain waterways shared by Georgia and Alabama.
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports Adm. Paul Zukunft, commandant of the Coast Guard, wrote to congressman from both states this week that the Aid to Navigation station at Lake Eufaula, Alabama, will remain open for now. The station sits near the Georgia state line and maintains buoys and other navigational needs in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system.
The Coast Guard announced in December it was considering shutting down the station depending on spending levels in the federal budget for fiscal 2015. U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., and Martha Roby, R-Ala., intervened as did GOP Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions of Alabama.
However, officials say the reprieve may be temporary.
