Albany Utility Board nears completion of Rails to Trails project
Carlton Fletcher
ALBANY — City officials told the Albany Utility Board at its Thursday-morning meeting that utility technicians would have the first project on Rails-to-Trails property the city recently purchased to expand utility services outside Albany and Dougherty County operational soon.
Assistant City Manager Phil Roberson told the Utility Board a gas line would be connected “within the next week or two” to the Flint Ag & Turf retailer at 741 U.S. Highway 82 West.
“We’ll have that gas project operational before we start having cold weather,” Roberson said. “The connection to Flint is the first leg of extended gas service in that portion of Lee County. We’ve made contact with other potential residential and retail customers out that way, particularly those along the section of the trail that runs from Armena Road to Oakland. We expect to add more customers out that way.”
Flint Ag & Turf, formerly Albany Tractor Co., hosted hundreds of guests during a grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday.
Also at Thursday’s Utility Board meeting, city Finance Director Derrick Brown said the utility authority’s personnel continue to keep operational costs down, helping to maintain positive financials even for divisions that have seen usually slight revenue decreases.
Brown said the city had budgeted $60 million for operation expenses during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2016 but had expenditures of only $11.5 million.
“That’s attributable to our people,” Brown said after the meeting. “Despite the fact that we’re holding at 1,008 employees when we’ve budgeted for 1,164, the city’s employees have managed to hold costs down. I’m sure we’ll eventually have to fill some of those positions, but our employees have taken to heart that ‘do more with less’ action plan.”
The Utility Board also voted to recommend that the Albany City Commission approve spending slightly more than $177,000 for luminaries, switches and vacuum circuit breakers needed by the Utility Board’s Light Division.
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