RIVERSIDE — The town is actively looking at providing gasoline on the water at Riverside Landing.

“The FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) permit has been applied for,” Mayor Rusty Jessup said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “Everything is perfect and in place.”

Jessup said the town applied for the FERC permit approximately five weeks ago.

“It should take about 90-180 days to get, but we are hoping it is closer to 90 days,” he said.

Jessup said the FERC permit will allow the town to build on the water at Riverside Landing.

“This will let us have gas on the water,” he said.

Jessup said the town is looking at spending about $25,000 for a marine gas pump. The same company could also provide upgrades to the two land gasoline pumps at Riverside Landing at a cost of about $5,000 each.

“The fly in the ointment is the $35,000 investment,” he said.

Councilman Kenny Womack said he is still against selling gasoline on the road.

“I just want to see us sell gas on the water,” he said.

Councilman Rob Hayes said he is in favor of the investment, but would like to see the land pumps be utilized for city use only to provide gasoline for city vehicles.

“That way we would not be in competition with the public on the road (gasoline sales),” he said.

Councilman Jimmy Hollander said the town could possibly keep the gasoline prices on the road the same as the gasoline prices offered at the Texaco in Riverside.

“Or we could price it higher by one or two cents than Texaco,” Jessup said.

Womack said he doesn’t feel the town should sell gasoline on the road at any price.

“It would save us $10,000 to upgrade the two road pumps to ‘pay at the pump,’” Jessup said. “If we use those pumps for city vehicles, we might not need as much money to upgrade them.”

Womack said he thinks the council needs to actively pursue the water gasoline pump.

“I think we need to move on this and over the winter get it done,” he said. “We need it open by spring, so next summer we will have gas on the water.”

Hayes said if the town decides to use the land gasoline pumps for city use, it will help keep the gasoline in the tanks fresher.

Hollander said the town might want to earmark the income from the gasoline sales on the water to pay off the pump first.

“We can’t do it until we get the FERC permit,” Jessup said.

Contact Elsie Hodnett at ehodnett@dailyhome.com.