Albany takes action to restrict exposure, avoid spreading COVID-19

ALBANY, Ga. – In response to cases of the COVID-19 virus, Albany City leadership gathered Friday to release information on their action plan to minimize exposure.

The city is taking a cautious approach to the Coronavirus.

List of measures the city is taking to avoid COVID-19 exposure

During the city’s press conference, it was announced that Albany Utilities would be undergoing some changes.

For example, customers won’t have their water shut because of non-payment for the next 60 days. 

Mary Ann Petty

Director of Utility Administrative Services, Mary Ann Petty, says, “If that non-pay does come up and you have electricity, that electricity will be disconnected but the water portion will remain on for 60 days.”

Keeping water services active helps ensure that people continue to practice good hygiene to reduce the spread of the virus.

“We want to make it available for them to make sure they have that water so they can stay clean and sanitized”

The utilities building sees an excess of 26,000 customers on a monthly basis.

To help reduce exposure and avoid spreading the virus, more payment options have been made available to Albany Utilities customers.

“We’re not asking them to come in, what we’ve done now is we’ve set up a phone line and they can call and get extensions on the phone rather than come in. And they can also go to our website, speedway, they can pay online, they can call in and if they’re having problems making those payments on the web, we’ll be glad to personally help them make those payments on the web.”

The facilities also offers drive up windows and drop boxes.

This is all an effort to minimize contact between people.