MOULTRIE, Ga. — Moultrie’s Main Street director presented a report Tuesday showing $1.8 million of investment in the city’s downtown last year.

The report comes from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Main Street Director Amy Johnson told the Moultrie City Council, but it’s based on information she sent the state agency throughout 2016.

“The building across the street was a major contributor to that,” Johnson said, gesturing across First Street Northeast to the building that now houses Affinity, the company that purchased Riverside Manufacturing. In addition to the offices that fill the first floor, the building contains six apartments, five of which are already occupied.

That building is the larger of two rehabilitation projects that were completed in 2016, the report said. In all, $475,000 was spent on building rehabs last year, and Johnson said that’s all private money.

The report said 11 new businesses opened downtown last year. Those businesses added 63 jobs to the downtown area.

Meanwhile, three downtown businesses closed, costing the area seven jobs.

The investments reflected in the report do not include a long-planned downtown enhancement project that kicked off last month with the groundbreaking of a pocket park on Second Avenue at First Street Southeast. Including grants that the city has applied for but hasn’t heard back from, that project has more than $1 million dedicated to it, mostly private contributions.

In other action

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Moultrie City Council:

• Approved the purchase of a brush chipper for $61,500 from Vermeer Southeast of Jacksonville, Fla., for the utilities department.

• Heard from Barbara Campbell of Highland Boulevard, who expressed appreciation for the city’s repair of electrical service after the storm in late January, but complained about ruts the utility trucks had left in her yard while replacing the power pole. City Manager Pete Dillard told her it was the city’s intent to fill in those ruts with dirt, and prior to her presentation he had thought it had already been done.

• Heard from Daughtry Melton, owner of Southview Mortuary, who asked the city to provide security lighting outside his business on West Bypass. He said there’s a street light at the corner of West Bypass and Old Doerun Road that illuminates the front of the business, and he has lights on his building. But the lack of other lighting leaves much of the lot in darkness and creates a safety issue. Councilmen said they’d already been discussing his request and said they thought they’d be able to help him, but no action was taken Tuesday night.

• Heard from Doris Wilson, of Fourth Avenue Southwest, who urged the city to make improvements to Woodmen of the World Park on Fourth and Fifth avenues southwest. In an interview after the meeting, Wilson clarified that she’d like to see more playground equipment for the children who visit the park. Currently it has little more than a basketball court and some picnic tables.