City Council Meeting

Thomaston Mayor Hays Arnold said, “This would have made Ed Bell happy, the last thing he would have wanted was to cost the city any money.” With that, the council approved putting Bell’s unexpired term on the general election ballot for November 8th. Qualifying will be held along with the regular election and the city will have no additional expense to fill the vacancy.

Seats held by council members Patsy Perdue and Gary Atwater will also be on the ballot along with the mayor’s.

Council approved the expenditure of $40,000 to install security cameras at City Hall, Weaver Park, The Greatest Generation Park and at the Park Street Park.

A city ordinance was approved to allow for the buying of electricity from customers that install solar panels, wind turbines and other energy generating equipment. The ordinance is required by state law and spells out the specifics on how much may be purchased and minimum equipment needed to connect to the city electric grid.

The Electric Cities of Georgia awarded the City of Thomaston the System Achievement Award at Tuesday’s meeting. It had been three years since a city was recognized with the award. It is recognition of the capital and maintenance improvements the city has made over the past decade. The city has reinvested approximately $1.6 million into the electric system infrastructure and an additional $468,000 to acquire new, heavy duty trucks for line work. In addition to that, the city has implemented several annual maintenance programs such as tree trimming, pole inspections, pole maintenance, pole replacement, transformer upgrades and meter testing. The city has expended, on average, more than $125,000 annually on such programs over the past decade.

Dan Thompson, ECG Senior Engineer stated, “The City of Thomaston has done a tremendous job improving their utility system. The city takes it’s responsibility to provide reliable power to it’s customers seriously and it shows through the major improvements they have made.”

Mayor Hays Arnold said, “We have made infrastructure maintenance and replacement a top priority in Thomaston. This is a positive recognition of the leadership provided by Electric Superintendent Cornelious Ivy and the city electric department staff.”

This recognition is especially remarkable considering that the average household in Thomaston using 1,000 KWH would have paid $27.85 more last winter if paying Georgia Power Company rates. The dollar savings amount is more during a summer month. Small businesses pay less also depending on their level of usage and power demand factor.