Albany City Commission OKs pool, Thornton Gym repairs

ALBANY — Lost somewhat in the bickering over “speed hump” funding requests Tuesday night were votes by the Albany City Commission that OK’d measures to privatize management of a revamped East Albany Boys & Girls Club facility and to approve a rezoning request that will allow property at 900, 906 and 912 N. Slappey Blvd. to be sold and turned into a used car lot.

The commission, at its monthly business meeting, approved a resolution that paved the way for use of a million dollars in SPLOST VI funding to build a pool and splash park and to make up to $500,000 in improvements on the aging city-owned Thornton Gym. The measure also calls for the city to turn over operations of the facility to the local Boys & Girls Club, which would be paid $99,000 a year for its services.

A large number of Boys & Girls Club participants, staff and board members were in the audience at the meeting. After the measure was approved, they cheered and held up signs thanking the commission for its vote.

“I look forward to seeing all of you — the Good Lord and weather permitting — in that pool next spring,” Ward I Commissioner Jon Howard, who championed the measure, told the students.

The Albany-Dougherty Planning Commission had recommended that Wilma Sheffield and her family’s rezoning request for three tracts on North Slappey Boulevard be approved, but under conditions that would not allow an auto dealership. Ward VI Commissioner Tommie Postell had recommended that approval be granted without the limiting condition at last month’s business meeting, but Ward II’s Bobby Coleman asked the board to table the matter so that he could poll residents in the area. The land is in Ward II.

Coleman said he’d found no great opposition to the proposal and suggested

the commission accept Postell’s recommendation to allow the rezoning without the limiting condition. Ward V’s Bob Langstaff voted against the measure, noting that the Planning Commission had recommended the condition.

The board also:

— Voted to approve alcohol licenses for a Pak-n-Sak store at 845 Oglethorpe Blvd., a Stop-n-Shop at 1701 E. Oglethorpe and Miyo’s Restaurant and Global Cuisine at 2820 Meredyth Drive;

— Offered support to the Back the Blue and Purple Heart City efforts;

— Approved naming a South Albany park in honor of Mary Young-Cummings, the first black female elected to the City Commission;

— Agreed to a $68,000 risk management settlement to Kimbalyn Moore following an accident involving city equipment;

— Signed off on more than $4 million in purchases for items that included a $612,000 telecommunications metaswitch that will allow the city to operate its own telephone service and $743,000 for new para-transit buses.

Albany Fire Department Chief Ron Rowe and Mayor Dorothy Hubbard recognized recently named Firefighter of the Year Capt. Kevin Prince and awarded Medals of Valor to Capt. John Beamon, AOE Michael Padgett and Firefighter Derrick Eldridge.

“Being a firefighter is not what we do, it’s who we are,” Rowe said.

Ward IV Commissioner Roger Marietta asked the board to “untable” his request to fund a “speed hump” for the 400 block of Meadowlark Drive, a matter the board had tabled a month ago when commissioners complained that Marietta’s requests for speed control devices would deplete most of the funding set aside for such structures citywide.

The Ward IV commissioner noted that he is the only commissioner who has sought engineering clearance required for the devices to be installed, but Postell interjected, “If he can get his request untabled, I want five speed humps for Ward VI brought off the table.”

Marietta quickly responded, “I’ll accept that as a friendly amendment.”

Langstaff, however, noted, “If I remember correctly, those structures have different costs on different streets. I don’t think we can vote to approve funding tonight when engineering hasn’t looked at each separate request.”

The matter was tabled again until the commission’s second work session in November.

At the end of the meeting, Hubbard announced that the city planned to host a reopening ceremony of the rebuilt Broad Avenue bridge, which will be renamed the Broad Avenue Memorial Bridge, at 11 a.m. Nov. 11. The ceremony will be held in conjunction with Albany State University’s Veterans Day celebration.