CAIRO — A $2,000 budget request before the Grady County Board of Commissioners is no longer an issue for the county after Commissioner Phillip Drew offered to cover the expense himself.

Drew, who also runs Grady Oil and the Drew Service Station in Cairo, offered to indefinitely provide the resources requested by the Grady County Senior Center through his private businesses.

Through his companies, the commissioner will donate $200 worth of fuel expenses each month, a total value of $2,400 each year — slightly more than what the senior center requested.

“They’ll just come and fill up at my station and I’ll give them that much credit per month,” Drew said. “They’re getting that much in free gas.”

Drew noted that his two stations already donate two to three tanks of gasoline each month for a bus used by a local veterans group.

Jami Harper, community programs director at the senior center, requested from the commission in February funds totaling $2,000 be added to the county budget for fiscal year 2020 to help pay for fuel and related vehicle costs.

In particular, Harper noted that the senior center averages 700 miles of travel per month providing 30 home-delivered meals each day to Grady County residents ages 60 and above.

“It’s a great program and we would have been glad to give (the funds) to them now, but if he’s willing to do it, that’s amazing,” said Buddy Johnson, county administrator.

Johnson said the move relieves the county of what would otherwise be an expenditure they would have paid.

“He’s taking the burden off the county, and more importantly, he’s assisting the senior center,” he said.

Johnson stated Drew’s intentions to cover the expenditure at Tuesday’s meeting of the county commission.

The other commissioners thanked Drew for his offer.

Fellow Commissioner Ray Prince said the senior center facilities, which are owned by the county, are home to numerous programs the county deems of value.

“They do Meals on Wheels, they have activities, they have all kinds of stuff out there,” he said. “It’s an ongoing thing daily.”

Harper said that as the number of older adults in the county grows, the need to serve the population grows as well.

In addition to the home-delivered meals, Harper also said an average of 25 congregate meals are provided at the senior center Monday through Friday.