Albany City Council held its regular meeting on Tuesday, October 3, with all members present and several topics considered during the 50 minute session. The meeting was also the first to be streamed live via social media on Facebook.
Some of the items of business on the agenda that were discussed or voted on were carried over to a special called meeting held two days later, Thursday, October 5.
Those items included naming a street in honor of the late Kenneth Delk; closing off certain streets for the upcoming Foothills Festival and setting of the city’s upcoming 2024 year tax rates.
During the regular meeting last Tuesday, a question was asked about a person who had originally shown interest in detecting water leaks in the downtown area. However, without giving specifics, Albany Mayor Steve Lawson said that individual “had backed out,” and had his own reasons.
It was noted, however, the city has its own equipment that can help detect water leaks.
Councilman Junior Gregory then informed the council he had heard some complaints from residents around East Cumberland Street about problems with animals and questioned what course they could take to help with the problem.
The mayor and others said it was an animal control problem and residents should contact the county’s Animal Control Officer or call 911.
Gregory also again discussed information he had received from a fire mitigation company that recovers insurance costs for fire departments on such incidents as vehicle  and boating accidents when the local fire department is called to respond.
He noted an insurance recovery company could help recover some of the costs associated with making the fire runs to such incidents by going through a person’s insurance company. He further said the company he had been in contact with would get 20 percent of the cost recovered, with the fire department receiving 80 percent of the money.
The council agreed to possibly further review such a recovery company proposal at next month’s meeting.
An updated version of the Nuisance Ordinance complaint form was presented to the council for approval. The form is used by anyone having a complaint about a particular nuisance to file with the city if they have a grievance.
One change was made to the complaint form to stipulate that anyone filing a complaint must reside in, or own land or property within, the city limits. A motion to approve the amended form with the new stipulation was made by Councilman Reed Sloan and passed by unanimous vote.
Some council members also addressed the recent water outage that occurred due to work being done at the water treatment plant, saying there needed to be advance notice given to the public of when a water outage may occur due to the upgrades.
Councilman James Bray said it was important because it had an effect on a lot of people, for example, schools having to be closed.
Engineers overseeing the upgrade project at the facility have also warned that it (water outages) may happen a couple of more times due to work being done at the plant.
Jeff Conner, with the water department, said it was “not the engineers (fault), but it’s the system.”
Councilman Sloan questioned whether or not an engineer was present when the outage occurred and felt they should have given a warning.
Mayor Lawson, said there had been a mistake made at the plant that caused the outage, but added “It’s on my shoulders too.”
During the public comment period, Sarah Wilson-Browning requested the council to close off a portion of East Spring Street for two nights for a Haunted House event taking place during the Foothills Festival weekend.
The nights will be Friday and Saturday, October 20 and 21 from around 4 p.m. to midnight.
Albany Street Department Supervisor Brooks Ferguson said that particular street closure may cause some traffic problems, noting the high volume of traffic that uses Spring Street to get to other areas of town.
Ferguson also added the Foothills committee may request Spring Street be closed off for the entire festival. No representative from the Foothills committee was present for the regular meeting.
Browning noted, however, that the closure would only be a small area, from the rear of the McWhorter Building (old Nazarene Church at the corner on U.S. 127).
Councilman Bray made a motion to close the portion of the street for the two aforementioned nights, which passed unanimously.
Browning, in the called meeting of the council held last Thursday, later explained that the only portion of the street that would need to be closed would be a “sidewalk” size area, which would still allow for one lane traffic.
Browning also told the council and others in attendance that Operation Hometown Christmas applications are now available at various locations.
In conjunction with that annual event, she said a community worship service is currently planned for Wednesday, November 29, and requested that a portion of Jefferson Street on the south side of the courthouse, be closed for a few hours to accommodate that program, which is scheduled to begin around 5 p.m.
Browning said the community gospel program would include speakers and singing, with the approximate hours of closure to be from around 4-9 p.m.
A motion was made and passed to close off that section of Jefferson Street on November 29 for the community gospel program.
Browning also reminded everyone that the Christmas Parade in Albany is scheduled for Friday, December 1 at 6 p.m.
The setting of city tax rates was next on the agenda, but Councilman Sloan said he had not had enough time to look at the rates, having only received notice a couple of hours prior to the meeting.
The issue was then tabled to a later date.
The council then set the annual Halloween Trick-or-Treat times for the city from 5-8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 31. That will also be the date and time for the annual Boo Fest held at the VFW Park on Hopkins Street.
Mayor Lawson, although not discouraging any type of trick-or-treating, did encourage parents and youngsters to consider “one-stop” alternatives such as Boo Fest and others as a safer way to celebrate the Halloween season.
Mayor Lawson then discussed briefly with the council some issues involving low water pressure being reported in the Hogback area of the county.
Water Department Supervision David Guffey said that since the water tank in that area had been filled up the previous Friday night, there had been no further problems reported in the area.
The mayor said he had taken note of the problems reported and indicated the city will continue to monitor the situation.
The mayor also announced the city has applied for a new generator for the water system and they should hear something back on the status of the 80/20 matching grant application later this fall.
The city is applying for the grant, which would be a 20 percent payback in funding by the city, through the Lake Cumberland Area Development District.
Councilman Bray said that two generators are needed and apparently the county is in the process of helping to secure funding for a second generator.
The next regular meeting of the council is tentatively scheduled for November 7, but could possibly be changed due to that date being Election Day.

City delays setting tax rates twice; another special meeting planned
After two meetings, a regular and special session, the Albany City Council will be hoping the “third time is the charm” when they hold another call meeting on the tax rate next week.
The council, during its regular monthly meeting on October 3, tabled the issue of setting the city tax rates due to some council members saying they hadn’t had time to study the issue, and needed more input on what city employees needed to do their jobs.
The council then set a special called meeting for last Thursday, October 5, to consider the tax rate.
However, apparently due to questions surrounding the “compensating rates” a taxing district has to consider, council members apparently needed additional time to gather information and have scheduled another special meeting for next Thursday, October 19, at 6 p.m. to again take up the issue.
At its regular meeting a week ago Tuesday, Councilman Reed Sloan said he had only received notice of the taxes being on the agenda about two hours prior to the meeting and needed more time.
Another council member also indicated they needed more information on what city employees needed to do their jobs.
During the regular meeting, prior to the council deciding to table the issue to a later date, Albany Street Department Supervisor Brooks Ferguson told the council that everything had gone up by extreme amounts, “not only in our department, but other departments.”
Ferguson suggested that even if the council chose not to increase property tax rates, they might consider some other type of levy, such as a fast food tax.
During last Thursday’s special called session, it was noted the city had the option of taking the four percent state allowed “compensating rate,” which is somewhat confusing to many.
Apparently the city had been in contact with its CPA, who had discussed the compensating rate and what effects, revenue wise, it may have. However, the full council felt they needed more information prior to actually taking action on setting the rates, which are usually set each year either in September or October.
During discussion, it was noted again that the city has not raised city taxes since the early to mid-1990s, or about 30 years, thus revenues from local taxes are not keeping up with rising costs of inflation.
Another issue on the special meeting agenda was that of renaming a city street in honor of the late Kenneth Delk, a 38 year veteran employee of the Albany Water Department.
At the regular meeting, the council had voted unanimously to rename Hopkins Street to Kenneth Delk Street, the street where the late employee and family were raised.
During the special meeting last week, Albany Mayor Steve Lawson told the council that he had several people “not really in favor” of changing the name of Hopkins Street.
The mayor said most residents reasons were “sentimental” in not wanting the name changed since it had been the same for so long.
It was also noted that actually changing the name of a street would have other affects, such as residents having to change 911 Mapping addresses, address changing and so forth.
Councilman Junior Gregory, who had made the original motion to change the street name, suggested in lieu of changing the name, that the city install “In Memory” signs at the entrances to Hopkins and Central Streets in honor of Delk.
Gregory then made the motion to rescind the previous motion and to instead erect the In Memory signs, which passed unanimously.
Also during the regular meeting held two days prior, Councilman James Bray mentioned the In Memory sign to honor the former long-time employee.
Mayor Lawson, however, noted that if one such sign was erected somewhere, names of other past employees of the city who had worked for long periods of time would probably need to be added, as to not leave past employees out.
The only other item of business on the special meeting agenda was the closure of streets for the two-day Foothills Festival to be held Friday and Saturday, October 20-21.
A few members of the Foothills Festival Committee, who were unable to attend the regular meeting, were on hand to request the city close off the regular streets in downtown Albany both days.
On a motion by Councilman James Bray, they voted unanimously to close off Jefferson and Cumberland Streets during the event, and portions (one lane) of Cross Street for an approximate two hour period each day for the planned Motorcycle Show that will be included in the Foothills events this year.
The special meeting of the council to consider tax rates and possibly other items, will be held next Thursday, October 19 at 6 p.m. The next regular meeting of the council is tentatively slated for Tuesday, November 7, at 5 p.m. Both meetings will be held in the conference room at Albany City Hall and are open to the public.