Albany City Commission signs off on plan for Georgia development designation

ALBANY — The Albany City Commission agreed to send a draft of the joint city/county Comprehensive Plan to the Department of Community Affairs for approval and OK’d $57,300 in funding that will provide for a consultant to help officials at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport get an 85-acre tract of land Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development designation.

Those votes were part of a busy commission business meeting Tuesday night.

City/county Planning Services staff have been working on a draft of the Comprehensive Plan for an extended period of time, and the draft presented by Planning Director Paul Forgey has now been approved by both the Dougherty County and Albany commissions. Once approval is granted by DCA, the plan will come back to the commissions for final approval.

“You’ve been working on this for a couple of years now, and I want to acknowledge the hard work you’ve put into this project,” Ward IV City Commissioner Roger Marietta told Forgey.

The Albany-Dougherty Aviation Commission and city Transportation Director David Hamilton have pushed for GRAD certification of land at the airport for commercial development. If certification is achieved, the airport would become one of only two GRAD-ready sites in the state located on land adjacent to an airport and would, officials say, offer greater economic development opportunities.

The commission granted City Manager Sharon Subadan the authority to sign subordination agreements on two pieces of property — on Charity Lane in Albany and on North Hudson Street in Americus. Each is being used as collateral to secure loans, the former for a beauty salon along Dawson Road that was approved for funding from the city of Albany’s revolving loan fund.

The board also voted to approve $158,858 in funding for 51 radios for the Albany Fire Department. Debate on that matter spilled over into discussion of the Motorola public safety radio system later approved by the board before Subadan explained that funding for the fire department radios was part of SPLOST VI allocations.

“Voters approved funding for fire department communications improvements, so there is funding for this project,” Subadan said. “It is separate from the new system upgrade, but these radios will be compatible with the new system.”

Marietta voiced his displeasure at Central Services’ use of “state contracts” rather than bidding on expensive items. Those types of contracts allow governments to “piggyback” off previous bids to get established prices.

“In the future, before we use state contracts for anything I’d like for this board to have a say in the matter or at least see the contract before being asked to approve it,” he said.

The board also:

— Approved alcohol license applications for American Eagle Food at 2704 Ledo Road and the 1017 Bar and Lounge at 1017 W. Broad Ave., and OK’d alcohol license transfers for the House of Jazz at 730 W. Highland Ave. and the Liquor Locker at 633 W. Oglethorpe Blvd.;

— Approved a rezoning application by Faith Vision Ministries (from R-3 to C-5) at 2230 S. Madison St. that will allow for a day care operation;

— Approved Community and Economic Development action plans for dispensation of Community Development Block Grant funds;

— Signed off on use of SPLOST VI funding for an electrical upgrade and lighting installation at Thornton Gym;

— OK’d the purchase of two Ford Pursuit Utility SUVs from Sunbelt Ford Town of Albany.

At the start of the meeting, Mayor Dorothy Hubbard read proclamations honoring Westover High School students Ed Belocura, Grant Brunson and Juliette Hu for their selection as three of the state’s 151 Georgia Scholars. Hu received special recognition, and a second proclamation, for being named the county’s and the Southwest Georgia region’s STAR Student.