Water, Gas & Light Commission no longer exists

ALBANY — The city of Albany’s Water, Gas & Light Commission no longer exists.

The Albany City Commission approved a second reading at its business meeting Tuesday night of a charter change that officially renames the city-owned utilities provider the Albany Utility Board. Along with the name change, the move allows the Utility Board to extend services beyond the corporate limits of the city of Albany and beyond the jurisdictional limits of Dougherty County.

Interim City Manager Tom Berry said Wednesday morning the move is significant.

“One of the charges of the Utility Board going into this new fiscal year was to increase revenue,” Berry said. “This change in the city charter allows us to work with other governments in the region to provide utilities services to regions that aren’t regulated by state law. We’re in the early stages of talks with other communities that could have an immediate impact.

“I also think the name change is more than just symbolic. There is such animosity in the community and on the City Commission toward WG&L. This change comes at a time when we’ve brought the Utility Board under the city but we’re also allowing more flexibility in their handling of business.”

The commission also paved the way for the construction of an Auto Zone automobile parts store at 2536 Dawson Road, at the former site of the Ryan’s Family Steak House that is now located at 1228 N. Westover Blvd. Matt LeCraw, who served as representative for the LeCraw Engineering firm that applied to have the property rezoned from C-1 to C-2 so that existing setback requirements would not have to be met, said he expects to start demolition of the old Ryan’s building as soon as possible.

“We’ll file for a permit with Planning as soon as we’re given approval,” LeCraw said. “I expect it will take two to three months to get approval, and we hope to have the new store completed in six to eight months.”

The commission also:

— Approved a 5 percent local preference threshold for bids on city projects;

— OK’d community-generated limitations on parking to improved surfaces only in front or side yards in the blocks of 1700-1717 Marbury Lane and 2000-2019 Lullwater Road;

— Established municipal election qualifying fees of $750 for mayoral candidates and $450 for City Commission candidates (both are a state-mandated 3 percent of compensation for the offices); and

— Voted to support construction of a roundabout at the intersection of N. Westover Boulevard at the planned Westover Extension.

The commission named Bobby Coleman to serve as mayor pro tem during 2015.