ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Former Orange Beach mayor Pete Blalock was part of the team negotiating the 10-year deal with American Roads 10 years ago, one he says was a good deal for the city.

Orange Beach agreed to give the struggling bridge company $12 million during 10 years of 2004 through 2013 in exchange for a per-car rate paid back to the city depending on how many cars came through the toll booth.

“It was a good deal, it’s going to pay off for administrations down the road for a long time,” Blalock said. “They’re going to have revenue coming in for doing nothing.”

A recent Islander story said now the city will get 30 cents a car for 20 years with no sliding scale on the number of cars coming through. The city would have an option to buy the bridge at the end of 20 years.

What was left out, Blalock said, the agreement says the city also has the option in 2033 to decline buying the bridge and continue getting 30 cents a car for 30 more years.

“That’s an awful long time,” Blalock said.

In the agreement there were no caps put on what the bridge operators could charge for the toll and if It was raised the city’s per-car rate didn’t change.

“We wish we had thought about putting some type of cap on the fee, but we didn’t,” Blalock said. “That was a downside. But if we hadn’t done that what would our residents be paying right now to cross that bridge? Three dollars and 50 cents instead of $1.50. So we’re saving a lot of people a lot of money and that’s a lot of money over the years.”

Now in the last year of the agreement the city gets 10 cents per car if the number of cars is less than two million, 21 cents if traffic volume is between two and three million cars and 36 cents per car if traffic exceeds three million cars.

The only year the city recouped the entire $1.2 million was 2006.

In 2004 the city took in $571,875, in 2005 $616,167, in 2006 $1,215,165, in 2007 $635,964, in 2008 $524,842, in 2009 $502,762, in 2010 $425,533, in 2011 $472,939 and in 2012 $493,010.

The 2006 payment was based on how many cars came through in 2005, the year after Ivan devastated the area. City officials say the spike was due to contractors and suppliers working on rebuilding projects.