Albany City Council held its regular meeting on election evening last Tuesday, November 7, with all members on hand.
The council either discussed or voted on different topics. Also, near the end of the half-hour meeting, a few council members had questions for the city’s engineer pertaining to the water projects status and percentages.
The council first approved minutes from three prior meetings, including the October regular meeting and two special called sessions.
Councilman Junior Gregory presented the mayor and council members information pertaining to fire recovery services, which would allow the local fire department to collect costs for covering such things as vehicle accidents they respond to from a person’s insurance carrier.
Several documents were presented to the council for review if the city decided to enact such an agreement.
Gregory suggested the city attorney, as well as the council, may need to look over the service agreements and possibly take action at the council’s next regular meeting in December.
Monarch Engineer David Bowles then gave a brief update on water projects currently in the works, including the status of the Duvall Valley water line project and the water treatment plant upgrade project, saying the latter should be completed by the end of the year.
Bowles also indicated upgrades to the inner city water line loop project may be forthcoming. Later in the meeting, the engineer fielded questions about water issues from some council members.
Willard Johnson, with the Clinton County Community Foundation, then addressed the council, requesting a couple of streets be closed off for an event coming up on Friday, December 1, following the second annual Christmas Parade.
Johnson noted to the council and others on hand that the Foundation sponsored Albany Nights event had been a huge success and the organization wished to do something along that line about every other month.
He told the council the organization was planning “Albany Lights” on Friday, December 1, in conjunction with and following the parade. He said the event would include Christmas karaoke, events for children downtown and more.
Johnson requested the city close off Cumberland Street down through the front of Albany First Baptist Church around noon that day, and a portion of Jefferson Street.
Councilman Randy Speck made a motion to close off those streets for the Albany Lights event, which passed unanimously.
Mayor Steve Lawson then recommended the council lease an unused city police cruiser, a Ford Explorer, for $1 to the Clinton County School Board to be used as a vehicle for use by their SROs (School Resource Officers). A motion to that affect was made by Councilman Gregory and passed unanimously.
Mayor Lawson also told the council that the county had recently put up a new radio antenna tower for emergency personnel communications and recommended the city, which will also benefit from better emergency personnel reception, contribute to antennas for the tower, for police and fire department use.
The mayor noted the total cost for both would be around $28,000. Councilman James Bray made the motion to purchase the equipment, which passed without opposition.
Mayor Lawson also informed the council that three nuisance complaints had been filed with the city as of last week, and presented them to the council to review.
Councilman Gregory asked, “How do we check to see if (these complainants) live in the city?” And, he also noted one complaint did not have a name on it, which is apparently required when filing a complaint.
The council opted to have city legal advisor Norb Sohm check into the matters Gregory had questions about and take the issue up at its next meeting.
Councilman Gregory also asked about the redirection of street signs around Hopkins and Central Streets in honor of the late Kenneth Delk, a 38-year employee of the city’s water department.
This led to a brief discussion of honoring past long-time city employees in some way, with Gregory noting the school bus garage had a plaque with a list of names of past employees at that facility.
Councilman James Bray suggested finding out more about past city employees, including names, how long they worked, etc. and then possibly placing such a plaque, beginning with Delk’s name, possibly at the water department.
Councilman Bray then questioned Bowles about the current rate per thousand gallon cost to produce and sell water, which the engineer indicated he did not know. However, he said both plants were currently operating at close to 100 percent right now.
The engineer was also questioned as to whether the Duvall Valley water line project included a new storage tank, which Bowles said it did not, because the project funding did not include a new tank. He added, however, that the Asberry tank currently in the area should help improve the water situation.
The water line project is currently underway and apparently running on schedule, although it was mentioned that the funding did not cover the entire project area with a 60 percent range being mentioned. The purpose is to help residents in the eastern portion of the county who have experienced low and/or no water pressure, at certain times.
Following the questions on the water line project, Councilman Reed Sloan suggested the council hold a special meeting to further discuss with other people, water related issues.
The mayor and council members agreed to hold a special called meeting on water issues on Wednesday, November 29, at 5 p.m.
The next regular meeting of Albany City Council is scheduled for Tuesday, December 5, at 5 p.m. in the conference room at City Hall. Both aforementioned meetings are open to the public.