Local & State Headlines

Sign ordinance moves forward

• Albany is one step closer to having a sign ordinance in place.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — Barring some unforeseen 12th-hour wrangling, when the Albany City Commission holds its monthly business session Tuesday evening at the Government Center it will — at long last — officially adopt a sign ordinance.

The commission voted 5-2, with Commissioners Dorothy Hubbard and Tommie Postell opposing, to OK an ordinance presented by Planning Director Howard Brown at its work session Tuesday morning, paving the way for final approval at the business session.

“What this document represents is an enforceable, defendable ordinance,” Brown told commissioners. “I think we’ve addressed most of the concerns that have arisen during the process of putting this ordinance together.”

Brown and attorney Brandon Bowen with the Cartersville-based Jenkins & Olson firm presented commissioners a copy of the proposed ordinance and provided an annotated breakout of nine major changes to the city’s existing ordinance. Those changes include issues dealing with multiple-message (or LED) signs, compilation of a billboard inventory, annual inspection of existing billboards, a citywide cap on multiple-message billboards, distance restrictions on billboards and an appeals process.

“The No. 1 issue that generated the most concern was the frequency of the change in messages on LED signs,” Bowen told the commission. “This ordinance offers three separate factors related to that issue.”

The ordinance allows for 10-second intervals between changes on billboards and a 24-hour period for all other signs, except those that are 8 square feet or smaller. Those signs are allowed to change messages every minute.

UTILITY FUNDS: Water, Gas & Light Commission Assistant General Manager Lorie Farkas and WG&L Fiscal Affairs Director John Vansant were on hand to answer questions posed by Commissioners Roger Marietta and Postell about revenue the utilities authority transferred to the city. Postell had previously complained that WG&L did not transfer a portion of non-metered revenue.

“Our greatest source of non-metered revenue is natural gas adjustment revenues,” Vansant said. “There’s really no profit margin on that revenue; we try to recoup our costs. That total averages out to around $8 million annually.

“Our other greatest sources of non-metered revenue include telecommunications fiber optics at an average of $1 1/2 million a year and late fees and cutoff fees that bring in an average of around $2 million.”

Asked by Postell why the city did not receive a portion of those funds, Mayor Willie Adams interjected that the $750,000 “extra” dollars transferred by WG&L represents a 7.5 percent transfer on what is typically $10 million in non-metered revenue.

“I look at that as ‘keep-your-mouth-shut’ money,” Postell said. “Many of us here feel we are not getting our fair share of funds from Water, Gas & Light.”

Adams, who as mayor serves as de facto chair of the WG&L board, said the issue would be discussed further when the two boards met to talk about funds that will be returned to WG&L through the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia starting in 2009.

WESTOVER EXTENSION: The commission also approved unanimously a proposed joint resolution between the city of Albany and Lee County in support of an extension of Westover Boulevard in Dougherty County to Ledo Road, which serves as a north-south border between the two counties. The expansion has been recommended as a way to alleviate traffic problems at the Nottingham Way-Ledo connector that has been identified as the most dangerous thoroughfare in the city.

“Lee County agrees to go along with the resolution, but I talked with their traffic director (former Chief Albany Engineer Bob Alexander), and he seems to think Lee County wants to extend that connector even further and that they’ll be able to get the Department of Transportation to fund the entire project,” Assistant City Manager James Taylor told commissioners.

The original resolution had called for the two entities to split the 10-20 percent of the project costs that would not be funded by DOT.

FINAL ACTION: Community and Economic Development Director Jennifer Clark, in one of her final official acts for the city before she leaves to take a position in Independence, Mo., recommended that the commission OK offering a two-year deferment on payment of a $500,000 loan on the University Gardens project and that the body give a vote of approval to Vantage Builders for its 40-unit elderly housing complex at the Landing at Southlake.

Both items were unanimously approved, and commissioners gave Clark a standing ovation after Adams wished her “godspeed” and told her she’d be welcome back in Albany if she changed her mind.

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