Got a favorite pothole or paving issue?
Sure you do. And tonight there’s a perfect venue to talk about them — the city of Columbus is holding the first of two planned town halls about paving at 5 p.m. at the lower level of the Trotter Convention Center.
The city has about $400,000 left over from paving bonds issued in 2019 that can be put towards more work, as well as about $3.7 million in use tax revenues that are as yet unused, according to Chief Financial Officer James Brigham.
Use tax revenue is generated from online sales, and may only be used for paving projects.
The city wants the public to help them determine where to spend that money, Mayor Keith Gaskin said.
“We want to let people know what the council will be considering and what the engineer has said are priorities,” Gaskin said. “I want the people who post on social media about potholes to come to these meetings and come and have a conversation so we can have an exchange about what we can and can’t do.”
The city’s long-range approach to paving sometimes lets things slip through the cracks.
“We don’t ride every street in the city every two or three years when the city does this,” said City Engineer Kevin Stafford. “We have a system of evaluating needs, and there hasn’t been a citywide assessment in about 20 years because we systematically program streets in. The difference is that some things happen in two, three, five year timeframes that we might not look at.”
Stafford said he wants to hear what people see on a day-to-day basis.
“It may not be that the same street needs to be repaved,” he said. “There may be an issue because of a base failure or a drainage issue. Somebody may have jack-knifed a trailer and gouged the street and it’s been there for three years and it’s gotten bigger and it needs to be patched. Those are little things, but they still matter.”
The town hall may help show some people that issues in their neighborhood aren’t necessarily paving-related, as well.
“For example, if you ride along 14th Avenue there’s two big dips,” Stafford said. “Those are both sewer issues. Neither the city nor Public Works is going to fix a (Columbus Light and Water) issue. On Seventh Street at Joe Cook there are a couple of dips that were Atmos issues, and they’re trying to fix that and make it right.”
Some paving issues need to be postponed to allow for utility work to take place, Stafford said.
“Some people say their road is in terrible shape, but CLW is planning on replacing all the water lines in the next two years and we’re not about to pave your street when they’ve told us they’re going to tear it up,” he said.
The event will be streamed live on Facebook, Gaskin said, but he encouraged people to come in person if they can.
“I encourage everyone who posts on social media or reaches out about potholes to come to these meetings,” he said. “It will be streamed live, but it would be good if people would come in person so we can have a conversation and an exchange about what we can and cannot do. We want to be transparent and get as much input from the citizens as we can.”
Tonight is the first of two planned town halls. The second will be Tuesday, March 28, at 5 p.m. It will also be in the lower level of the Trotter.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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