One of the primary impediments to keeping ditches maintained throughout the city is a lack of both personnel and equipment, Public Works Director Casey Bush told Columbus City Council during a Thursday work session.
Much of that meeting focused on stormwater drainage issues. City Engineer Kevin Stafford told the council the majority of the city’s flooding problems could be traced back to poor maintenance of ditches, which have silted up or otherwise become blocked over time.
Bush told the council the equipment needed to do the work is old and limping along. An excavator — which is necessary for ditch-clearing work — is old and needs repairs to one of its tracks.
“We have a (Caterpillar 323 excavator) that needs about $30,000 of work to get it back properly running,” Bush said. “We are constantly spending money trying to keep it running and repaired. I just don’t see constantly putting money into something when we could get something that works.”
Bush told The Dispatch Friday the city bought the excavator in 2014 and, due to heavy use, it was getting to the end of its service life.
“We use it day-to-day,” he said. “At this point we really need to start thinking about replacing it.”
Bush said the tracks on one side of the excavator keep coming off.
“I don’t want to keep using it and keep tearing it up because it will cost even more down the road to fix,” he said.
Bush didn’t know what a replacement would cost, but he said it cost around $330,000 to buy back in 2014.
“There’s never really been a priority list of the things (Public Works) needs to maintain and how often you need to change out and maintain the equipment,” said Mayor Keith Gaskin.
Bush agreed.
“I ran it by (former Mayor Robert Smith), the stuff that we need to keep the department running,” Bush said. “It has been laid out a couple times. But we don’t have the funds in my department for the past five years now.”
Gaskin asked Bush point-blank if he had the equipment to maintain the city’s ditches.
“Not at the present moment,” Bush said.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones suggested renting equipment when it was needed.
“If you’ve got a big project, it would make sense to rent something just for that day,” Jones said.
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene liked the sound of that.
“If $330,000 is what we’re looking at for a new (excavator), how many times could that money pay someone else to clean that ditch out?” asked Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene.
Bush said he thought the city would “end up in the hole” if it started renting equipment.
“The thing with a heavy piece of equipment is that sure, we’re going to spend the money,” he said. “But then we have a piece of equipment that will last. Once you have a piece of equipment that you’ve used on a daily basis for six or seven years, that’s when it’s time to start looking at swapping it out.”
Gaskin asked Bush to get a list of equipment he needed together, as well as what it would cost to maintain the ditches once they are cleaned out, and bring it to Tuesday’s council meeting.
“If we’re going to get them cleaned out, we need to be sure we can maintain them,” he said.
Friday morning Bush told The Dispatch that manpower problems also needed to be addressed, and a major problem there is salaries. He said Columbus pays between $14.50 and $15 per hour, while surrounding towns pay $18-$19.
“We have people come here with no experience, and then we train them and they leave to go somewhere else,” he said.
Bush said he has four equipment operators, but two of those are at the landfill, leaving two to do work in the city.
“We need three more to spread around so we can get more work done,” he said.
Bush said full staffing for his department is 62 people total, and he has about 49 now.
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