MOULTRIE – The Moultrie City Council approved a change to its alcohol ordinance during Tuesday’s meeting.

City Manager Pete Dillard initially introduced the ordinance change during the Oct. 4 work session.

“Primarily our changes would increase the distance from the residential area from 50 feet to 100 feet for an establishment that has alcohol. It also is to treat beer and wine the same as liquor for an establishment [as far as food content],” he said in a previous article from The Moultrie Observer.

This update makes establishments that sell beer and wine follow the same requirements that sellers of liquor have had to follow.

All such establishments must how have at least 35% of their on-premises consumption sales come from food, according to the updated ordinance shared by City Clerk Tina Coleman Friday morning.

The council unanimously approved the first and second readings to amend the City of Moultrie’s alcohol ordinance with a vote of 5 to 0 during the Oct. 4 regular session.

The third and final readings were also approved with a vote of 5 to 0. City Councilmember Lisa Clarke Hill of District I, Post I was absent from this week’s meeting.

Saluting Gen. Moultrie

Nancy Coleman and Ginny Gay with Daughters of the American Revolution asked for the council’s support to obtain a marker to be placed on the Courthouse Square for Gen. William Moultrie, a Revolutionary War officer for whom the city is named.

“We want to make sure people know that this city is known for General Moultrie,” Coleman said in her presentation.

The marker would be placed to commemorate the United States’ 250th founding anniversary.

Box culverts

The council approved a $1,228,930.78 bid from CE Construction of Albany for Southwest Box Culvert Improvements II. The bid will allow the city’s engineering department to replace damaged culverts throughout the city. The project is funded through the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST).

During the work session, Dillard said, “This was where 50 or 60 years of water running through box culverts under some of the roads eroded the concrete there now, the waters flowing into the dirt and starts to cave things in.”

Fifth Street and Seventh Street have previously caved in due to the damaged box culverts, Greg Monfort, the director of the engineering department, said during the work session.

Health insurance

Dillard also asked for the council to approve a budget resolution to move $250,000 from various funds to a health insurance fund.

The money will be kept in a fund as a preventive measure for the varying of yearly healthcare costs, he added.

Finance director

Dillard also announced that City Clerk Tina Coleman is the City of Moultrie’s new finance director.

“For those that aren’t familiar with the job, about 80% of that is dealing with government and city clerk work, the rest of it is dealing with software, which Tina is very familiar with, and also the personalities which she’s very familiar with. She actually has been around 20 years,” Dillard said.

Jessica Perdew previously served in the position full-time as longtime Finance Director Garry McDaniel’s stepped back to a part-time role in preparation for his retirement. Perdew has since left for other opportunities and McDaniel returned to the full-time position. Coleman will replace McDaniel full-time effective Nov. 1 while McDaniel will work part-time during the transition. The city will seek to hire a new city clerk, but Coleman will continue to fulfill those duties until the position is filled.

“I’m really excited,” Coleman said in an interview Friday morning.

The next city council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 6 p.m.