Albany Commission approves stadium upgrades

ALBANY — The Albany City Commission approved the use of $132,702 in SPLOST VI funds Tuesday night to provide upgraded stadium seating for the Paul Eames Sports Complex.

Recreation and Parks Director Joel Holmes told commissioners his department had already lined up a number of uses for the upgraded facility, including tournaments that could bring in as much as $2.5 million in economic development.

In response to a question from Ward II Commissioner Matt Fuller about use of the Eames Complex, Holmes said the baseball fields at the complex would be used by all local public high school baseball teams and for both the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball and softball tournaments and the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (junior college) tournament.

Holmes also noted that the rec department had contracted with Game On Baseball to host seven tournaments in March, May and June. In response to a question by Mayor Dorothy Hubbard, staff determined that the economic impact of each tournament could be estimated in excess of $300,000.

Before the commission voted on the agenda item, Hubbard said, “The fact that we have these events adds to the pie, but we should maintain our facilities anyway.”

Chad Warbington, who has been mentioned by many as a possible mayoral candidate, offered a rebuttal to the proposed use of the SPLOST funds.

“While the Paul Eames Complex was probably a big recipient of funding from a vote decades ago, times have changed in what the public sees as needed ‘recreational’ spending in 2019,” Warbington pointed out in post-meeting comments. “Paul Eames is now more of a CVB tourism attraction vs. a recreational complex for citizens to enjoy with kids and families. The facility has lost its attraction to local citizens and even as a regional competition facility.

“We have allowed the facility to fall in disrepair over the years and now we are just trying to keep it maintained. So the key message is that ‘youth recreation and facilities’ is what I’m hearing is the biggest need in our community, and citizens see the connection of youth recreation to crime rate and school performance and overall youth development. Recreational spending on seats/aluminum benches that will be used by mostly non-citizens for traveling tournaments is what threw up the red flag for me.”

The board passed the matter 5-0.

Warbington also questioned the city’s planned use of SPLOST funds targeted for “street light upgrades” to replace damaged cable to street lighting throughout the city. City Manager Sharon Subadan explained that more than $6 million in SPLOST funding was allocated for moving overhead wiring underground, and part of that funding was for “upgrades.”

In response to Warbington’s assessment that repairing the cables would be improper use of the SPLOST funding, which he said should be used to move circuits underground, Subadan said, “We’ve got a price on moving our circuits underground, and the price for one is $10 million. And we have 52 circuits in the city. We are, though, in contention to get a grant that would allow us to do one.”

The commission also:

— Voted to rezone property at 2033 N. Slappey Blvd. to allow for development of a convenience store with six fuel pumps;

— Authorized procurement to seek bids to place crushed asphalt for 20 alleys in each of the city’s six wards;

— OK’d $2.8 million in funding for Phase II of the city’s six-year street resurfacing program;

— Approved a new five-year lease agreement with Delta Airlines to continue that air carrier’s flights to the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport.

The commission voted to hold off on making annual appointments to city boards and commissions and on naming the new mayor pro tem due to the absences of Commissioners Bob Langstaff and Tommie Postell. The commission is in a quandary over a city charter item that calls for succession, by ward, of the mayor pro tem position because Postell is in line to hold that position.

But the Ward VI commissioner, for health-related reasons, is a no-show at the majority of meetings. City Attorney Nathan Davis said the charter “clearly spells out” the line of succession for the position, meaning Postell will, barring some unusual action, take the position in February.