LaGrange has lower electricity payments than others in Georgia, City Council learned this week.

A benchmarking survey recently completed through Electric Cities of Georgia showed the city ahead of 37 other cities in MEAG surveyed, gaining less revenue from utility customers than most and having lower maintenance and operation costs while having fewer systems to maintain.

“This means, of the cities that participated in the survey, we have got the lowest cost structure for operation and maintenance, and at the same time our revenues received per kilowatt hour are in the lowest 25 percent of the cities in Georgia,” City Manager Tom Hall said at Tuesday night’s council meeting. “That means they don’t have to pay a lot for power.”

Out of 38 cities, LaGrange scored eighth lowest in revenues received per kWh sold, and lowest in routine operations and maintenance, operation and maintenance per GWh purchased, and operations and maintenance per systems maintained.

“It’s a real testament to (utilities director) Patrick (Bowie) and the guys in the elected positions,” Hall said. “Those guys do a lot without spending a lot.”

Also Tuesday, council heard an update on Troup County’s free medical clinic, Troup Cares.

“We now have our 350th patient that uses the Troup Cares clinic as their medical home, and to us that’s special,” Troup Cares Executive Director Ken Young said.

The clinic provides free medical care through 27 volunteer doctors, 24 serving in the community as specialists; three volunteer nurses; and a full-time nurse practitioner, who has helped expand the clinic’s hours from one day a week to three.

Patients are required to be working, have worked within the past or drawing unemployment; have no medical insurance; be 19 or older; and be a resident of Troup County for the past six months or in the country on a legal visa or work permit, at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

“There seems to be a layer of people who are out there working, trying to make ends meet, but they do not make enough money to buy medical insurance or they do not have medical insurance on their job,” Young said.

To help with the increasing population of acceptable patients, the clinic also plans on adding a fourth day, allowing patients to come in Mondays through Thursdays, as well as an evening clinic and a Saturday clinic, all in the near future.

Troup Cares is funded through grants, West Georgia Medical Center and local support like church groups.

“We charge no one any fees at all for our services, both at the clinic and when we refer out in the community,” Young said.

They were also added as a clinic with Volunteers in Medicine, an organization with a Web site that shows clinics in the country who have done what they said they’d do - provide free clinical care to the impoverished. They were the 73rd clinic added in the country - one of nine in Georgia.

“We’re very, very proud of that,” he said.

In other action Tuesday, council:

— Approved the rezoning of 601 Vernon St. to commercial residential,

— And approved an ordinance to allow city officials to check the criminal background of the owner of a building and the manager before approving an alcohol license.

Trey Wood can be reached at twood@lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.