Albany City Council held its regular monthly meeting last Tuesday evening, May 3 with five of six members on hand, and also the return of Mayor Nicky Smith, who had missed the previous two sessions recovering from eye surgery.

The council first heard a brief presentation from a representative of Mediacom Cable, the city’s cable provider, who gave updates on some of the services provided by the company, including higher speed internet service and the ability to streamline the internet, such as movies, etc. through the cable system.

The two issues that concerned the council were the new franchise agreement calling for a local payment center, something the city has been doing from city hall over the years at a fee.

The contract calls for a payment center for local residents to have a place to pay their bills locally if they wish, but it can be anywhere inside the city limits. No formal decisions on a location for the center, which would be required to be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week, was made, but there apparently will continue to be a local payment center somewhere in Albany once the new franchise agreement is signed.

The only other issue involved the length of the franchise agreement.

The representative noted that the franchise was non-exclusive, meaning any other cable provider could come into the city. However, city legal advisor Norbert Sohm also noted the city had requested a 10 year, rather than a 15 year, agreement, which had been written into the latest version of the franchise agreement.

The Mediacom representative said he would have the language changed from 15 years to a 10 year agreement.

On Sohm’s advise, the council delayed final action on renewing the franchise until next month.

Mayor Smith then addressed the council about the issue of the Corps of Engineers’ push to charge Lake Cumberland water entities a past and current fees for use of water drawn from the lake.

The mayor said the city of Albany’s share, dating back to the 1950s, would be up in the amount of $325,000 and an annual usage fee of between $5 and $6 thousand dollars annually if the fees actually went into effect. However, he noted that U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers had refused to back a $200,000 allocation for further study on the Corps study and other cities and entities continue to push to have the measure halted, feeling they shouldn’t have to pay to use water from the lake.

(Details of Rogers actions can be found on the Regional News page–Wayne County Outlook–this week.)

The mayor also presented council members with a copy of the proposed 2016-17 fiscal year draft budget for review only. He noted the budget, of around $4 million, was only slightly higher than the current year’s budget and asked council members to look it over and propose any changes prior to next month’s meeting, at which time a first budget ordinance reading will be held.

The council then entered into an approximate 15-minute closed session to discuss possible pending litigation and took no action upon returning to open session.

Prior to adjourning, councilman Tony Delk asked about the situation with torn up streets and property on Wood Street due to recent gas line repairs, saying it had left the area “in a mess.”

Mayor Smith said the president of the gas company had given assurances that the gas company would make all necessary repairs to the properties involved in the line repairs.

The next regular meeting of Albany City Council is scheduled for Tuesday, June 7 at 5 p.m. at city hall and is open to the general public.