MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Moultrie City Council approved a $45,000 capital improvement for the Moultrie-Colquitt County Humane Society in its meeting Tuesday.

Drew Durham, director of the MCCHS, approached both the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners and the council during their respective meetings on Oct. 5. He was asking for $89,000, half from the city and half from the county.

The Board of Commissioners voted that day to match whatever the city appropriated, up to $44,500, but the city council postponed a decision until its next meeting on Oct. 19.

“Durham and the rest of his people have been doing a good job leading the humane society since he’s taken over,” Pete Dillard, Moultrie City Manager said during the city’s work session Oct. 19.

Also on Tuesday, the council also approved a lease agreement renewal for the Sunbelt Ag Expo. The agreement had a few amendments that were undertaken during the work session, including a three-year agreement instead of the previous five, legal language that would secure documentation for a city council member who will be acting as a liaison between the Expo’s board and the city, and an increase to Expo’s insurance from $5 million to $10 million, according to discussion between Dillard, Moultrie Mayor Bill McIntosh and the council.

The revised agreement is still pending acceptance from the members of the Expo board. If they make any adjustments, the city council will have to consider them before the agreement can become official.

During Tuesday’s work session, Moultrie Chief of Police Sean Ladson gave a crime report that included general statistics from 2020 to the current 2021 statistics, awards and accomplishments of the MPD and the MPD-Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office joint Drug Enforcement Team, and major crimes.

“We have seen a lot of our guys getting some serious cases closed,” Ladson said. “Lots of hard work within the department.”

In other action Tuesday, the council:

• Accepted a bid of $64,281 from HP Nimble for a new storage area network. The money will be paid from the American Recovery Act Fund. The network will expand data collection, according to Don Howell, Moultrie City IT director. “The SAN will provide a larger, faster and expandable place for the city’s data,” Howell said during the work session.
• Accepted an agreement with the Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Family and Children Services for the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program, which Dillard said is designed to help citizens who apply with water bills.
• Accepted a contract for construction at the Municipal Airport with the Georgia Department of Transportation, Colquitt County and the Moultrie-Colquitt County Airport Authority as well as an agreement for the American Rescue Plan Act involving the same entities. 

All actions were accepted almost unanimously by the council aside from Ponder, who abstained from all votes. The next council meeting is scheduled for Nov. 2.