Mayor Keith Gaskin, along with several other city officials, came to the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning to renew their plea to work together to remediate drainage and watershed issues. In the end he was invited to make a pitch at a future work session, but not before being told to take $3 million of the county’s money out of the city’s calculations.
Columbus City Council has voted to set aside about $3 million of its approximately $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for drainage and stormwater remediation, and is hoping to get substantial state and federal funds to grow that amount. The supervisors have set aside about $5.4 million of the county’s approximately $11 million allotment of ARPA for rural water associations, but have not yet made a decision on what projects will be funded.
Although the city has said publicly multiple times it would like the county to match its $3 million, no formal request was ever made.
Gaskin led the charge Tuesday morning, opening by saying, “I come in peace” before asking the supervisors to help the city.
“I talk to citizens in both the county and the city on a regular basis who are struggling with flooding issues,” Gaskin said. “When there’s a heavy rain, water goes into people’s houses. Businesses face that as well. When we have heavy flooding, people in both the city and the county have sewage back up in their homes.”
Gaskin reminded the board that 41 percent of Lowndes County lives in the city limits.
“Forty-one percent of the people, I think, would think we need to work together,” he said. “Three of you live in the city limits…It’s easy to pick your sides, city versus county, I don’t give a damn what they’re doing, I’m moving in my direction. When we do that it ends up not helping the citizens.”
District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks said the county had tried to reach out to the council to work together, to little avail. He said some elected officials were “looking for a free steak and a fifth of whiskey instead of addressing issues.”
“I’ve reached out to members of the council,” Brooks said. “Nobody did anything. We kept reaching out and they never took the time to sit down and look at some real issues…We moved forward with what we thought was in the best interests of the board, and quite a bit of the money we’re going to be spending is going to be in the city.”
The county has outlined a plan that would see it give funding not only to local festivals — including ones in the city — but also to many area nonprofits. It is also giving some $300,000 to a city-sponsored blight remediation program.
“I hate this 41 percent kind of stuff,” Brooks said. “…If you come up with something that makes good sense, I’m for it. If you’re going to ask for money, put it on the table.”
Gaskin said the conversations needed to continue for long-term projects.
“We are going aggressively after federal grants, but we cannot not try to tackle these flooding issues in the city and county,” Gaskin said. “We would ask you to look at the $5 million you’ve set aside to look at that and see if there are some of these areas where you can partner with us.”
District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith said he didn’t oppose sewer and stormwater work.
“It appears on the surface we are opposed to supporting (drainage work),” Smith said. “That’s the furthest thing from the truth. I can talk about areas on Southside, areas off Highway 69 where it floods and water gets in people’s houses….We got to find a way we can work together. I’m one of that 41 percent that you talked about.”
Brooks told Gaskin point-blank to stop counting on the county giving it money for its drainage projects.
“We’ve heard continuously the county was going to put $3 million, and we’ve never discussed that,” Brooks said. “If you’re putting a collaborative plan together, that blank from the county probably needs to remain vacant.”
The supervisors are going to hear presentations from rural water associations June 6, Brooks said.
“Whether we’re going to have any money (left over), we still don’t know,” he said.
District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders suggested city representatives come to a work session and make their pitch.
“When we have our next work session, come and ask for exactly what they want,” he said. “We need to sit down and get into the nitty gritty about what’s going on.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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