MOULTRIE — Moultrie City Manager Mike Scott highlighted infrastructure improvement projects that the city has begun during his annual “State of the City” presentation to the Moultrie Kiwanis Club Thursday.

The intermodal transportation facility is beginning to take shape, Scott said. The former utilities department building, located on Second Street Southeast, is in the process of being torn down to make way for it.

Scott said the problem with getting the building torn down is there have been two water wells uncovered that are still being used. They will continue to be used, and all the materials inside the building are being closely examined to ensure nothing of significance is thrown out. The public works employees doing the demolition are doing it while still doing their regular jobs, but Scott has no problem with the pace of it.

“We’re getting it down,” Scott said, “and we are taking our time with it.”

The plans for the intermodal facility are in the final drawings, and Scott said they should be completed by September, The city’s goal is to begin construction on the facility in November or December.

The city has also been working to install an automatic meter reading (AMR) smart grid to the city’s current meter reading system, Scott said. About 60 units were installed Monday. the grid will allow utility meters to send a signal to a tower to read and get the data at any time, probably more information than is needed.

What the new system will do, Scott said, is to provide an advantage for customer service. It will allow the city to work with customers and allow them to tailor their bills and pay them at the most convenient time.    

The city was awarded $7 million in federal stimulus money for the wastewater treatment plant, and Scott said the first two phases of that construction are already under way. The two projects are adding equalization pumps and upgrading the biogas facility. Also, the city is in the design work stage for additional phases to be added in the near future.

Scott said one project he described to Kiwanis last year that has since been completed is the new Department of Labor building on North Main Street. Everyone working there has been pleased, he said, and the state may use the design as a template for future Department of Labor buildings.

Another project that the city set out to do that has been completed is to have every school connected by fiber optic cable, Scott said. CNS Cable completed the project to connect every school to the central office this summer, and it has allowed the students to do long distance learning.

Through the teleconferencing now available to schools, Scott said students have been able to visit places like the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta and the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and take part in an anatomy class at the University of Georgia. Classes have also been able to interact with other classrooms Turkey, France and Germany, giving the students opportunities few others here have had.

“We’re real proud about that accomplishment,” Scott said, “and we look forward to good results.”

Scott said city department heads have done a fantastic job of keeping costs down and productivity where it needs to be. He expects the next fiscal year budget to be virtually the same as the current budget, and he does not expect to have any furloughs or layoffs of city employees.

In addition to the budget, Scott said he does not expect there to be any significant changes to utility bills. Electricity and natural gas prices are currently stable, and he did not expect the prices to spike unless something major happens, such as a storm in the Gulf of Mexico.