The first meeting of the Albany City Council in 2026 turned out to be a “special called” session on Tuesday, January 6. All council members were on hand for the approximate 45 minute meeting.
The meeting was originally scheduled as the council’s regular meeting. However, City Attorney Jeff Hoover had advised that due to the change in location, due to the temporary closing of the old city hall conference room, the meeting would have to be a special meeting, since the council had not had time to designate and publicly announce a regular meeting location.
This adheres to Kentucky’s Open Meetings statutes.
Last week’s meeting was held in the Clinton County Adult Education Office (old Board of Education offices) on North Hwy. 127.
To remedy the situation of regular meeting times and location, late in the meeting, a motion was made by Councilman Randy Speck, seconded by Councilwoman Renee York, to hold the council’s regular meetings (at least until city hall is renovated) at the old Board of Education office facility. The motion passed unanimously.
With both the city hall and water department offices now temporarily located in a leased building in west Albany, initial discussion at the first year’s first council meeting centered on a proposed design and renovation for the old city hall/water department.
Staff from the building on Cross Street were relocated when black mold was found, primarily in the oldest water department side of that building, a few months ago.
Councilman Reed Sloan  distributed a proposed design drawing from a local contractor for renovations to city hall and the water departments, with the design including a “front” entrance drive-through for billing drop off and demolition of the water department side of the building, which would create more parking area without having to rent a lot for parking space.
It was recommended in the design that the old water department side be demolished and turned into a parking lot, with the remaining portion to be basically shared with city and water department employees, plus a front drive-through area.
The plan also included the design of the building’s interior space.
Following a short discussion, with no official votes being taken at this time, the council agreed to the exterior portion of the proposal, demolishing the water department side of the building and installing a front area drive-through.
Councilwoman York also questioned the amount of square footage there would be in the building if the old water department side was demolished and the number of water department employees involved in the move to combine the departments.
It was noted the latter would likely have to be approved by the Department of Transportation since it would involve a portion of Highway 127 to allow access to the building.
The council took the design under advisement and will make further recommendations pertaining to the interior design of the facility in the months ahead.
Councilman Eric Smith then questioned if there was any progress on the nuisance issue on Tennessee Shortcut.
Attorney Hoover said the city would have to send an official “lien” on the property first and then the city could proceed with its own clean-up and charge the property owners.
Albany Mayor James Bray said there will be fines levied against the property owners in question.
Councilman Smith also noted there were other such areas in the city he was aware of that needed attention. However, it was noted that a complaint form verifying such locations would have to be filed with the city before any formal action could be taken.
Mayor Bray also noted that the transition from the old city hall building to the building on Burkesville Road was underway, although they had faced some hiccups along the way, with some retraining on the computer systems needed.
The council also discussed putting up some type of outside drop box at the old city hall facility for residents to drop off water bill payments and options are currently being considered. Apparently many residents were still unaware that the facilities had been switched from one location to another.
Another issue discussed was “unlettered city vehicles,” and possibly having either lettering, or a design placed on all city department vehicles to identify city employees to the public.
Mayor Bray said the city was in the process of having all city department vehicles maked with the city seal and vehicle number so residents could identify who city employees are when they have to do business on private property.
Various department head reports were then presented, beginning with the Albany Police Department’s monthly activity report by Police Chief Mark Bell. (A copy of the monthly APD report is published elsewhere this week.)
Fire Chief Robert Roeper also gave his monthly report, noting the fire department had made 26 runs during the month of December, 2025, and noted overall 411 responses were made during the year, the most ever by the fire department in a single year.
Roeper also noted the fire department has applied for a grant for a new water tanker truck and said at least three new firemen were needed for the department and asked anyone interested and dedicated to contact him or city hall for information.
The water distribution report was also given, as it was noted the department had repaired about 25 water leaks and replaced or repaired several broken meter boxes during December, mainly due to the boxes freezing.
Travis Harper of Commonwealth Engineers also gave the monthly engineers progress report, noting the new generator should be delivered to the water treatment plant sometime this week with installation complete by the end of the month.
The engineer reported there has been a delay on getting some key parts to the lift station on Hospital Street, including a basin and pump, due to a delay in delivery. That will push that long-awaited project completion back to around mid-March, he noted.
Although the residential water meters had previously been scheduled to have been complete by the end of last year, Harper said residential meter installation was now at 67 percent and is expected to now be complete by mid-February and master meter installation will begin soon thereafter.
Finally, the engineer again reported that the proposed new water treatment plant design has been submitted and ‘fine tuning’ is being done prior to the final design phase.
Following the engineer’s report, Mayor Bray, during his monthly comments, noted that 2025 had been a “busy year,” with the city hall transition being thrown into the mix.
The mayor said he was looking forward to 2026 and a better year, with some fine tuning to be done with the water system and hopes the new water meters will greatly improve things.
He also commended the water distribution system  employees for doing a “great job” during the holidays and said he hopes for more improvements and more money to come in during the year.
Bray concluded by thanking all city employees and wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
The next regular meeting of Albany City Council will be Tuesday, February 3, at 5 p.m. at the Adult Education (old Board of Education) office on N. Hwy. 127 Business and is open to the public.