Two local middle-school students shared their ideas of how to improve their community before the Bainbridge City Council Tuesday.

The sixth-grade students, Zach Willis of West Bainbridge Middle School and Marlee Massengill of Hutto Middle School, were at City Hall Tuesday evening to share their entries in the Georgia Municipal Authority’s statewide “If I Were Mayor” contest.

Willis, the local winner, wrote he would make recycling mandatory, create more bike lanes and repave heavily-used roads.

Massengill, the local runner-up, said she would conduct a survey to find out what changes citizens would like to see. She said she would also lend her support to the local Humane Society and its operation of an animal shelter. Other things she believed could help included a homeless shelter and putting up a traffic light at the new Bainbridge High School for safety.

Mediacom to raise premium channel rates

On April 24, Bainbridge’s digital cable provider, Mediacom, is set to increase rates on some of the premium packages it offers customers. While the council did not discuss the changes, their agenda packet included a letter from Sally Bloom, the senior manager for government and community affairs for Mediacom’s Georgia region, explaining the changes.

The changes only apply to customers receiving cable television through a digital converter. Digital Plus service, which adds additional cable channels on top of Expanded Basic, will increase $1 to $10. Digital One Star, which adds 15 channels of Starz and Encore, will remain at $12.95 per month. Packages with either Showtime or HBO in addition to Starz will go up $1.95 a piece, while the Digital Three and Four Star packages will each go up by about $4. Cinemax in 1 or 2 Star Packs will go up by $1.95, and wire maintenance service will increase $1 to $4.95 per month.

Other business

• Unanimously approved a request from Richard A. Donalson to extend city utility services to his residence at 215 River Oaks Drive, contingent on Donalson agreeing to annex his property when it becomes adjacent to Bainbridge city limits.

• Unanimously approved three Planning Commission recommendations: Conditional use permit to allow an after-school program and summer camp at 506 N. Russ St.; request to rezone 1204 Dothan Road from light industrial to highway commercial; and contingent on rezoning, show 1204 Dothan Road as highway commercial on Future Land Use Map.

• Approved a request from James Lodman Sr., representing Black Men United, to hold their annual Friends and Family Day in the Earle May Boat Basin on Saturday, June 6.

• Unanimously voted to deny a request from Ms. Latoya Peterson to close Dupree Street between addresses 118-128 during the hours of 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, to 2 a.m. Sunday morning to accommodate a private party. Council members stated they were uncomfortable with the 10-hour length of the closure and the fact that it was a private party, as opposed to a community block party or public festival, as reasons for the denial.

• Unanimously approved a alcoholic beverage license request from Mukesh Kumar Patel, doing business as Amiri Bainbridge at 1030 E. Shotwell St., for sale of beer and wine for off-premises consumption.