Albany City Council held its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 1, with all members present and several items of business, mostly water and infrastructure related, on the agenda.
The session lasted for an hour and twelve minutes, with several crucial actions pertaining to water system upgrades being taken.
After approval of minutes, Albany Mayor James Bray addressed the need for total replacement of the lift station on Hospital Street, saying that had been put into both this and next year’s city budget for the ongoing problems to be taken care of.
The system, which was said to be at least 65 years old, has had ongoing issues throughout the years and the mayor said funds in the budget would cover design work and other aspects of totally replacing that particular lift station.
The council then held first reading of the much and long discussed Fire Recovery ordinance, with second reading expected to be finalized next month.
After months of discussion on the issue, the city and fire department eventually opted to bill insurance companies for fire department runs covered by insurance “in-house” rather than paying an outside company to handle the billing.
Following a brief discussion, the council voted to set the penalty cost for all new water installations at $250, per state mandate under an agreed order.
Under state regulations, any water system that produces above 85 percent of its capacity must charge new installations.
The city’s engineer, Toby Church of Commonwealth Engineers recommended the amount, saying it was not an “overwhelming amount” and further noted that if the city began saving enough water to produce under the 85 percent limit, the fee would be moot and not have to be charged.
The engineer told the council that more numbers would be coming in on the amount of water used this month and it may be below the 85 percent mark.
Mayor Bray said the state mandated fee, however, was non-negotiable. He added that if water usage levels were down, the fee would not have to be enforced.
The mayor added the water department has been working on water tanks to stop leaks and so forth and again stressed the importance of the upcoming new water meter and master meter project, which will use a hydraulic model to detect leaks in the system.
He also added that for the first time in over a year, all water tanks were at full capacity as of last week.
Church also said that 85 percent was at the level the state wants you to be (in water production capacity) in terms of it being time to look at building a new water plant, another major project that is also in the works.
Mayor Bray said the state “had been lenient” to the city, waiving about $100,000 in fines that could have been imposed. He added the city had crossed the 85 percent capacity point 10 years ago and many times has run at 100 percent.
After the discussion, Councilman Junior Gregory made the motion to set the new water installation rate at $250, which passed unanimously.
The council then discussed an issue that had been brought forth the previous month pertaining to broken water meter boxes, and the cost of replacement and labor.
It was noted a new box costs $90 plus an hour of work by three employees, at around $100 to $150 cost to the city to replace those broken boxes.
After a brief discussion, Gregory made a motion to charge anyone breaking a meter box $250 to cover the cost of replacement and labor. The motion passed without opposition.
City Clerk Ashley Tucker then gave the financial report, noting the past month city revenues came in at $815,000 and the city was in overall good financial condition at this point.
Albany Assistant Police Chief Wayne Glover and Albany Fire Department Chief Robert Roeper then presented the council with the monthly reports for each respective department.
Mayor Bray gave the water distribution, water plant and water department report. He noted the water department employees had discovered and repaired some 48 water leaks over the past month.
Church then gave the monthly engineer progress report, with a Commonwealth representative also announcing the bids received on the water meter projects, including the residential meters and master meter project.
There will be around 4,000 new state-of-the-art residential meters installed and 33 new master meters.
The low bid on the residential meters was $1.359 million from Consolidated Pipe and Supply, with that bid coming in within budget. The sole bid on master meters from Flo Line, however, was $1.945 million, which was over budget.
Councilwoman Rene eYork made a motion to accept the low bid on the residential meters, which passed by unanimous vote. The motion was subject to the company having all bonds, etc. in place.
Church told the council they could negotiate with Flo Line on the master meter bid and try to get it within the city’s budget amount of $1.250 million.
A motion was made by Councilman Randy Speck to accept the Flo Line bid, subject to them negotiating the price downward to the budget limit of $1.250 million. The motion passed with all voting yes.
Church also gave an update on the cost of repairing the manhole on South 127 recently. The cost of repair was $53,000.
The engineer also said some previously awarded federal earmarked money, due to federal cutbacks, would not be coming this year, but the city would be getting a funding offer from Kentucky Infrastructure program in June.
Church noted when funding is in place, the city should be getting started on the design of a new water plant.
During the mayor’s report, Bray said he genuinely appreciated all city departments and employees, saying the city has a lot of good things happening right now. “I could not have said this this time last year,” he added.
During the public comment period, local resident Linda Neal Kinser addressed the council about an issue surrounding congestion at Days of Grace Food Pantry on South 127.
Kinser, in noting the food pantry was for the poor and elderly in need, told the council of an incident that occurred in March in which she claims a man wearing a white shirt went (vehicle) door-to-door asking for their driver’s licenses and threatening them with a $200 fine for parking.
Discussion involved the congestion in the area near several restaurants on south 127 the two Wednesdays per month the pantry is open and how to remedy that situation.
During Kinser’s statements, Councilman Gregory ask “What do you need” of the council?
The resident suggested possibly having a police officer guide people through the line and mentioned making those there for food feel safe.
Gregory suggested having an officer to go down through the area on one of the food donation days and look over the area.
Officer Glover told the resident he apologized if anyone patronizing the pantry felt scared. He said that on those days, calls have come in to dispatch about traffic being blocked on the south lanes with traffic.
The officer continued, however, that with the back entrance (off Hwy. 738) being mostly private property and also several sinkholes in the area, the South 127 side is about the only entrance option to the facility.
Some possible options were mentioned, such as limiting certain numbers of people into the area to pick up food at certain times.
Days of Grace Food Pantry, which is organized by local residents Roger and Sherry Owens, has been in operation helping give food twice monthly to those in need for several years.
Both Mayor Bray and Assistant Police Chief Glover told Kinser they would be happy to get with the Owens’ to try and work out some type of solution to mitigate the congestion problems.
Kinser thanked the mayor, council and Glover for ‘being on board’ in support of the food pantry, which she said had been a blessing to herself and many others.
Bill Daffron, representing the Albany Masonic Lodge, then addressed the council in relation to an event the members are planning on Saturday, June 7, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The organization will be putting on its now-annual car show in downtown Albany, with a rain date scheduled for the following Saturday, June 14.
Daffron requested the city close off Jefferson Street and West Cumberland Street during the aforementioned hours on the date of the downtown event.
Councilman Reed Sloan made the motion to close off the streets on the day of the event, whether it be June 7 or 14, with the motion passing unanimously.
With no further public comments forthcoming, the meeting was adjourned.
The next regular meeting of Albany City Council is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, at 5 p.m.