Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan, two months into her third term, gave her 13th State of the City address at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Parham-Copelan missed the first council meeting of the year with an illness, while attending the second meeting of January remotely. Parham-Copelan then returned for the first meeting of February and has been front-and-center ever since.
The first part of Parham-Copelan’s speech dealt with the city’s water and sewer department. Like most old cities around Georgia, Milledgeville’s water and sewer infrastructure is aging in a hurry. The City Council last year approved $55 million in bonds for future water and sewer improvements, most notably overhauls and improvements around the Lamar Hamm Water Treatment Plant.
Money also was set aside to acquire SCADA technology, which is a system of hardware and software that makes many manual tasks automated. Also, the SCADA system can detect water leaks in real time and trigger automatic shut offs.
Parham-Copelan also used the speech to brag on the Milledgeville Police Department.
“We’re so proud of our police department. I would put the Milledgeville Police Department up against any other police department in the state of Georgia,” she said. “I call them ‘Milledgevlle’s finest.’” Parham-Copelan is the only female mayor in the 190-year history of Milledgeville mayors.