Cartersville discusses Habitat grants, natural gas rates | News

“Many years ago the city did a grant to build some low-income housing,” Lovell said. “Habitat for Humanity has been the party administering that grant for us over the years. They are basically shut down. The Land Bank has agreed to take over those responsibilities. Both Habitat and the Land Bank have signed off on it.”

Once the council approves the resolution, the matter will go to the Department of Community Affairs, Lovell said.

“Hopefully by the first of next year they will approve it and everything will switch over to the Land Bank,” Lovell said.

Lovell said the city built six houses with the grant funds: 118 Courrant Drive; 145 Douglas St.; 25 Fairview St.; 22 MLK Drive; 24 MLK Drive; and 26 MLK Drive.

The council also heard a first reading of an ordinance that would decrease natural gas prices for some of the city’s customers.

City Manager Dan Porta said the rate change would amount to about a 2% decrease.

“Primarily the large commercial industrial customer will see that impact,” Porta said. “We just went back and evaluated our rates to see where we’re at.

“We just finished the fiscal year and we looked at it again, and we determined we can make these adjustments and still make a profit for the city. We’re just trying to keep the costs in line as much as we can.”

Porta estimated the city had 20 to 30 industrial customers who would be affected.

“For the city, it’s about a $750,000 decrease in revenue in the city,” Porta said. “The total in the gas fund is about $40 million [yearly], so the decrease is a small percent.”

In other business, the council:

• Approved a $212,142 purchase of an underground puller trailer from Sherman & Reilly for the electric department. The expenditure was in the department’s budget.

• Approved the purchase of a repair sleeve for the gas department at a price of $8,234 from Petroquip. The purchase was in the department’s budget.