Albany City Council held a one-hour regular meeting last Tuesday, September 3 with all members present and again spent a large portion of the session discussing water related issues.

The council first heard from representatives of the Tourism Commission who voiced concern about rumors they had heard that the city may have opted to switch out the Hometown Hero banners with the Foothills Festival banners during daytime hours, rather than at night.

Patrick Padron, chairman of the Clinton County Tourism Commission, noted that the cost of hanging the banners during day hours would likely be more costly to the city and hanging them at night seemed safer for city employees doing the work.

Mayor Lyle Pierce said he would leave it up to the city street department to do what they felt was best and Brooks Ferguson with the street department noted hanging the banners at night time would save the city money and be safer with less traffic on the streets.

Councilman Reed Sloan then made a motion to continue having the banners hung, and in the case this fall, to switch out the Foothills banner at night. The motion passed by unanimous vote.

David Bowles with Monarch Engineers then informed the council his firm had studied the water level issues to the Duvall Valley area, saying there were a lot of problems starting at the plant that is causing low water pressure issues.

The new water plant was constructed 22 years ago, in 1997, and he said they (engineers) went all over the sticking points and said one place the city should consider would be applying for a matching grant through the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority to have the plants repaired.

The council voted to begin the application process, which is non-committal at this point. Bowles did say later in the discussion, however, the city had an excellent chance of being approved.

Bowles estimated that the total cost for all repairs to the Duvall Valley area, the 127 bypass project and other related work needed to be done to repair all the problems could run upwards to $6 million. This would also have an impact down the road on customer water bills across the board.

Councilman Tony Delk again questioned the engineer about what is believed to be a major leak somewhere along the “loop” line area around town that is causing a major water loss. “Some people in Duvall Valley are having to haul water in the summer months, “he said.

There was also discussion on the need for new master meters and a meter switch-out program. Bowles noted the old system in use now is very inaccurate at times when getting correct readings.

Bowles said new master meters should be a part of what is specified for use of the grant funds and suggested the council contact their state legislators for help in obtaining funding.

Delk also asked Bowles for a commitment from Monarch to help find the major leaks in the system.

Wanda McKinley, a local hair dresser, addressed the council about a situation where she had a customer in her shop who had just had chemicals put on her hair when the water in the city was “shut off” without notice and asked if there was any way the city could notify people in advance when work was going to be done on the water system so people would have advance notice.

Councilwoman Tonya Thrasher suggested the city look into installing a “one-call” system to notify all water customers of when there was going to be work done on the system, informing them in advance in situations, where feasible, that water would be temporarily off or with low pressure, etc.

The council also agreed to have East Cumberland Street closed off for the “All for Benny” fundraiser coming up later this fall and briefly discussed the annual “Boo Fest” which is held at a central location in downtown on Halloween.

Setting the city tax rates was also on the agenda, however, after a motion was made and seconded to keep the rates unchanged, some discussion followed and the motion was rescinded.

The council agreed to hold a special call meeting this past Tuesday, September 10 (too late for press deadline) to vote on the city tax rates. Details on that meeting will be published in next week’s Clinton County News.