Albany City Commission pause will be short-lived as it returns to address major issues

ALBANY — Albany City Commissioner members want the public to know that even though a March meeting was canceled, they’re still on the job.

While the canceled March 1 meeting drew some grumbling, the body had been working at a breakneck pace through the first two months of the year, according to Ward IV Commissioner Chad Warbington.

“If you look at the months of January and February, we had meetings almost every week,” he said. “I think we had so many meetings the staff needed a break, frankly.”

The commissioners spent two days on a retreat in February making plans to address some of the top issues facing the city.

“We met for eight consecutive weeks, more or less,” Warbington said. “We had a really productive (regular) meeting in February. We really needed a week off to catch our breath, really.”

Prior to the arrival of Warbington, Ward VI Commissioner Demetrius Young and Mayor Bo Dorough to the commission in 2019, the commission held one work session and one evening regular meeting per month. After that trio came on board an extra work session was added, with morning meetings on the first and third Tuesdays of each month and the evening meeting on the last Tuesday.

During the retreat, commissioners discussed public safety issues and combined sewage overflow issues and the project to separate stormwater from sewage.

The eighth special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) initiative, which will be on the ballot this year for voters, also was a big topic.

“We talked about some new ideas, technology,” Warbington said. “Extended-stay hotels are going to be a focus for us going forward. They’re a big drain on police services — drugs and prostitution — and are a community problem. It just keeps coming back up.”

The city plans to include significant investments in recreation with the anticipated tax money, Warbington said. And with an aging housing stock, the city is looking at getting into helping address the issue through partnerships with private investors.

“We’ve got blighted lots, vacant lots, vacant houses,” Warbington said. “We’ve got to make it where you can find a good, quality place to live.

“We’ve got bedroom communities in Lee County, down around Baconton, and that’s fine. In the city we’ve neglected our housing for decades, and it is dramatically showing.”

For the mayor, there was another reason to cancel the recent meeting: the 10 a.m. celebration that day of the 70th anniversary of Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany.

Once the meeting started, he said, there was no way to cut it off at a specified time to guarantee he could make it to the event in time.

“That was another consideration,” Dorough said.

The format of having three meetings a month instead of the two that was the custom two years ago is working well, the mayor said. On March 1 there were only four agenda items up for discussion “and none of them were vital,” he said.

He agreed the February retreat was productive.

In the discussion on recreation facilities, the consensus has emerged not to attempt to renovate the Henderson and Bill Miller gyms, which would both require a protective flood wall around the property due to both being located in the flood plain.

Thornton and Carver are other recreation facilities being considered for renovations.

“Thornton, Bill Miller and Henderson gyms were all constructed with federal dollars in ‘77 and ‘78,” Dorough said. “It’s not surprising 50 years later they’re all in a situation where adequately repairing those buildings would exceed the return.”

When the commission meets on Tuesday, it will address a full plate.

“I guarantee you it will be a four- or five-hour meeting next week,” Warbington said.

File Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
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