Council looks over budget

By Melinda L. Lucas

The 2021-2022 budget and a contract extension for city manager Billy Holson were the main topics of discussion at Monday’s Albany city council meeting, but no action was taken on either item.

Holson plans to present a finalized budget proposal at the March 8 session, and mayor Susan Montgomery expects Holson’s contract to be approved the same night.

Montgomery reported that new furniture and accessories were delivered last week to the new pilots lounge at the Albany airport, funded by the AVJ Foundation.

“There are four very comfortable reclining chairs, side tables, a lamp, and rugs,” said the mayor. “It’s not a place to stay the night, but they can have meetings out there without coming into town and can spend several hours there comfortably.”

Montgomery expressed appreciation to the AVJ Foundation for providing the furnishings for the  facility, which was substantially completed almost a year ago with grant funding and private donations.

Budget Details

Holson showed council members the preliminary budget figures for the upcoming fiscal year that starts April 1, 2021, and after reviewing, the council decided that budget workshops would not be necessary.

Three additional employees are included in the budget, with hopes of having enough personnel later in the year to complete some street repairs.

Even adding three employees won’t raise the staff numbers to where they were several years ago, Holson said, and other than that, the preliminary budget is similar to this year’s amended budget, with revenue and expenditures based on those in the current document.

He mentioned that the city hopes to receive a large block grant that could pay for as much as 22 blocks of street resurfacing, especially if the city has the manpower to stretch the dollars by putting down the asphalt themselves.

Council members expressed confidence in the budget numbers and didn’t feel there was a need to schedule budget workshops over the next few weeks.

The budget must be proposed and public hearings scheduled before the new fiscal year begins.

City Manager’s Contract

In a brief closed session, council members reviewed a new three-year contract for Holson, submitted by city legal counsel Pat Chesser. 

There was no action after the meeting reopened to the public, but Montgomery said that she expects the contract to be approved at the next meeting.

Other Business

•Lester Galbreath was elected as mayor pro tem for the upcoming year.

•eHT (formerly Hibbs & Todd) scored the highest of three firms for the engineering contract related to the Community Development Block Grant project.

•The council election was ordered for May 1, 2021. It will be cancelled if there are no opposed races.

•Council members voted to join a legal cooperative of cities served by AEP regarding AEP’s “advanced metering cost” request.