MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Moultrie City Council approved a zoning request and tabled another one for the third time Tuesday before swapping a city councilperson and opening its 2018 year.

Under its bylaws, the council must deal with old business left over from 2017 with the sitting council members, then adjourn and open a new meeting with the council members for 2018. That means that outgoing Councilwoman Susie Magwood-Thomas participated in the first part of the meeting, while her successor, the Rev. Cornelius Ponder III, took part in the second.

Ponder defeated Magwood-Thomas in the November election and was sworn in as the first action of the new council Tuesday.

In the first part of the meeting, the council approved the zoning of 0.85 acres at 809 Fourth Ave. N.E. from M-1 (Light Industrial District) to C-3 (Commercial District) following a public hearing at which no one spoke. This is the second piece of property at that address to be rezoned that way over the past two months because of some discrepancies in the ownership; some parts of the property are owned by Gary Jenkins while others are in the name of companies he is a principal in. The property rezoned Tuesday belongs to Farmers Dolomite Lime Company.

The council also tabled a request from Thomasville Investment Properties, LLC, to rezone 3.5 acres at 1925 S. Main St. from R-PUD (Residential Planned Unit Development) to C-1 (Commercial District). The request originally came before the council Dec. 5 but was tabled because the council wanted more information about the developer’s plans for the site. The request was tabled again at the Dec. 19 meeting and on Tuesday because of scheduling conflicts.

The council also approved an amendment to the FY2017-18 budget with no discussion.

After that, the council adjourned, Magwood-Thomas left her seat, and Mayor Bill McIntosh called a new meeting to order. He administered the oath of office to Ponder, who then took his seat on the council.

An estimated 70 people showed up to support Ponder as he was sworn in.

Ponder said he ran on the slogan, “Make Moultrie Great Again — And Let’s Do It Together!” He urged the crowd who came out on Tuesday to come back for each council meeting going forward. He said their visibility would add to their voice in city affairs.

After the swearing-in, the council approved several “housekeeping” details for the new year:

• Angela Castellow was named mayor pro tem, a post that rotates through the council. The mayor pro tem stands in for the mayor when he’s unable to attend an event or fulfill some other portion of his duties.

• Set the salary of the council at $495 per month and the salary of the mayor at $580 per month. Both are the same as last year.

• Re-appointed Pete Dillard as city manager.

• Reappointed Mickey Waller as city attorney at a salary of $899.33 per month, and David Herndon as Municipal Court judge at a salary of $2,580.66 per month.

• Reappointed Tina Coleman as city clerk and LaDene Foster as assistant city clerk.

• Authorized the mayor to make committee appointments. Sometimes the appointments themselves are approved during this session, but McIntosh said he hadn’t spoken with Ponder about what committees he was interested in serving on and didn’t want to make assignments until he had.

• Designated Southwest Georgia Bank, Bank of America and Ameris as depositories for city funds and authorized the mayor, all council members, city manager and finance director to sign city checks.

• Named Carr, Riggs and Ingram as the city’s auditors for FY2016-17.

• And approved city council meeting dates and procedures.

A public hearing was scheduled for an alcohol license, but the applicant wasn’t there Tuesday night and the law requires them to be for the license to be issued.

The council approved first and second reading of an ordinance regarding building regulations for businesses that sell alcohol. First and second reading is simply the council’s agreement to consider a proposal. The council will actually discuss and act on the proposal at its next meeting.

Also during the meeting, the council heard concerns from resident Eddie Warren, who referred to streets in bad repair in Northwest Moultrie as well as what he described as poor service from garbage collectors in that part of town. He also urged the city to make more progress against dilapidated housing.

City Manager Pete Dillard, during his report to council at the end of the meeting, addressed some of Warren’s comments. He said forcing landowners to take care of their property is a long process, which was detailed in a recent Moultrie Observer article, but both he and McIntosh assured the assembly that the city was working on it. Dillard also said paving a road costs about $1 million per mile, but the community recently passed a Transportation Local Option Sales Tax that will bring in millions of dollars over the next five years specifically for roadwork and other transportation needs. Dillard said the community should be able to see improvements as the TSPLOST money starts coming in and is put to use.

Laquita Smith Bridges told the council two vehicles — which she described — were consistently driving very fast on her street, Seventh Street Northwest, and asked that the police do something about it.