Albany City Council held its first 2011 session last Tuesday evening at city hall with all council members present for the half-hour regular meeting.

Albany Mayor Nicky Smith opened the meeting by welcoming all the council members, including three members, one returning member, James “Smitty” Smith and two newly elected members, Tonya Thrasher and Mary Faye Stockton.

Monarch Engineer David Bowles then gave the monthly progress report of ongoing projects. He noted that adverse weather had slowed some work, especially the water tank project. However, the new one million gallon tank behind the high school is ready to be put into service.

All electrical service and telemetry service work has been completed and at the Piney Woods tank, which is in operation, a new telemetry monitoring system is being installed that will monitor the operation of both tanks.

The utility relocation phases continue to progress. The second phase of the project will include relocating utility lines starting around the radio station west of Albany and proceed southward. According to engineers, all right-of-way has been purchased for that particular phase by the Kentucky Department of Transportation and utilities will need to be relocated by October of this year. Once revised plans have been approved by the Department, a bid date will be set to open bids on the project.

Also, the water line project from the industrial park to near the Wayne County line is about 20 percent complete and has been slowed somewhat in December due to adverse weather conditions.

The mayor and some city department heads gave a briefing to the new council. The mayor noted that many residents didn’t realize the training that most city employees, especially those in the water and sewer department have to have to perform their jobs.

The council heard updates from Eric Smith at the waste water treatment plant, who gave a brief overview of that branch’s work, noting the treatment facility served about 1,250 residents. He did note some problems with older lift stations that required a lot of ongoing repair work.

Lanny Bowlin with the water plant, which has nine people working, informed the council about a possible ‘reverse bidding’ process from a Louisville-based firm that could save the city thousands of dollars in chemical costs.

The reverse bidding process on chemicals by ebid/BidBridge would be at no cost to the city and it will be conducting the auction for chemicals sometime in February. Mayor Smith said the city would take part in the program this year to see if the city could save money. He added that in some areas, municipalities had saved several thousand dollars in the cost of chemicals to treat water by using this process.

The council also heard from Kenneth Delk, who heads the water distribution process. Delk said about 5,200 customers are served and noted employees in the water department were kept busy day and night with installing hydrants, repairing lines, reading meters and a number of other duties. He also noted that employees required ongoing training.

Police Chief Ernest Guffey also briefly addressed the council, noting his department had eight officers who provided 24-hour police protection and simply noted it was the department’s duties to “protect and to serve.”

After the department head briefing, councilman Smith made a motion to appoint former city councilman Leland Hicks to the Albany Housing Authority. The motion passed unanimously. Hicks will replace long-time housing board member Clarence Bray.

The council then entered into a very brief five-minute closed session on personnel and took no action upon returning to open session.

While back in open session and prior to adjournment, Mayor Smith said that an application was being made through the ADD for a Recreational Trails grant that, if obtained, would be used for sidewalks north to around the middle school.

Also, the council discussed the need for a sidewalk in the area on East Cumberland Street past Golden Harvest Village, as council members noted the amount of foot traffic in that area. Mayor Smith said he would check on getting cost estimates for such a project.

The next regular meeting of Albany City Council is scheduled for Tuesday, February 1 at 5 p.m. at city hall and is open to the public.