Albany City Council held its regular monthly meeting last Tuesday evening, September 2 with all members present.

Mayor Nicky Smith began the session by briefly updating council members on ongoing water and/or sewer projects, noting there were no specific changes from the previous month pertaining to the following: Highway 127/Highway 1590 Interchange (1335); Albany Bypass/Wolf River Dock Road sewer extension; Highway 1590 sewer line extension; and Albany Bypass water service.

During the update, however, the mayor recommended that the council add a request for funding for a 5,000 water storage tank that, if approved, would be placed in the Bald Rock area of eastern Clinton County to hopefully help alleviate some of the water pressure problems currently being seen in that part of the county.

The council, on a motion by Councilwoman Tonya Thrasher, voted unanimously to add that project for possible funding.

A resident from the Bald Rock area addressed the mayor and council on the low pressure issue he and some other neighbors are experiencing. “Sometimes you don’t know if you’re going to have water or not,” the resident said, adding that sometimes the flow of water would just stop when the pressure dropped too low.

Kenneth Delk with the water department also spoke on the issue, as he and others have been working to try and get the problems fixed. Delk said there were only 30 pounds of pressure coming through the four-inch line and that anything, such as a small leak can back up the lines and reduce the pressure. He also said a side problem was that some people have been getting water out of (fire) hydrants.

The residents with the biggest pressure problems are those that live on the highest elevations in the area.

Other than applying for funds for the additional storage tank, the council agreed to have their engineers also look at the situation and work with the local water department to try and get the water pressure increased to those residents.

Local insurance agent Jamie Sparks then presented the council a proposal or renewal of the city’s property insurance policy. The quote for the coming year was $66,124.77, which Sparks noted was over $5,000 less than last year.

With little discussion, Councilman Frankie Stockton moved to accept the property insurance proposal for the coming year that takes effect in October, with the motion passing unanimously.

Albany Police Officer Ricky Marcum then presented the council with information on a piece of equipment being tried out by the local police department, that being a “body cam,” or basically a small HD video camera that police officers wear on their person and record, both visually and with audio, everything police are involved in once that are outside of their vehicles.

Officer Marcum noted that dash cams have been around in police departments for some time and in many instances, he feels, have stopped racial profiling. With the body cam, which is kept on the officers uniform, it records what is going on at all times while the officer is outside his patrol car, such as during traffic stops, answering domestic calls or whatever the case may be.

“In some cities, it has prevented frivolous lawsuits,” Marcum said, noting that with the recording capacity that can be used in court shows exactly what transpires during any situation. “It lets you know what police officers are doing and creates more transparency for the public,” he added.

Marcum said that out of courtesy, he lets people know that they are being recorded. It was also noted that there needed to be in place some “chain of command” for use of the recording device, or some chain of custody from the officer to city and police administration.

Each body cam has several hundred hours of recording capability as well and has built-in infrared illuminators for night vision recording.

Albany Police Chief Ernest Guffey also told the council he highly recommended obtaining the body cams for use by all his officers.

Following the presentation, Councilman Tony Delk made a motion to purchase six body cam at $300 each for a total of $1,800, with the motion passing by a 6-0 vote.

The council then set the now annual downtown cleanup for October 4 and Mayor Smith informed the council that local Farm Bureau representatives had invited all city officials to its annual Farm Bureau membership dinner this Thursday, September 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the fairground’s building.

The next regular meeting of Albany City Council is scheduled for October 7 at 5 p.m. and is open to the public.