Columbus City Council is considering bidding out grass cutting on the Highway 82 interchanges.
During its Thursday work session, City Engineer Kevin Stafford told the council the Mississippi Department of Transportation only mowed the five interchanges about twice yearly.
“Y’all have seen what they look like if you leave it up to MDOT,” Stafford said. “It’s going to be bush hogged twice a year, and in the past the city’s taken on this maintenance.”
The bids looked at mowing the interchanges at Highway 182, Highway 45 North, 18th Avenue North, Military Road and Highway 50 East, as well as a straightaway between the Highway 45 North interchange and 18th Avenue North in front of Leigh Mall.
S&S Landscaping and Nursery submitted the low bid at $74,997. The contract would be for three years, with the interchanges mowed every two weeks during mowing season.
Stafford said S&S was substantially cheaper than the estimate of between $120,000 and $150,000, but he is confident the company can handle it.
“They are a newer company and they’re growing, and they saw this as an opportunity to expand their mowing and maintenance fleet,” Stafford said. “At the end of the day they said they were confident they could do it for this (price).”
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard asked Stafford for an update on the city’s squabble with MDOT over past mowing.
In August Mayor Keith Gaskin said he had discovered the city had been mowing MDOT right-of-way for years without being paid for the work. The city had contracted in 2013 with MDOT to mow along the Highway 82 corridor, but work continued after that contract expired in 2018.
Gaskin said at the time he thought the city should be paid for the work, but Thursday Stafford said it was unlikely the city would see any money.
“That contract ran out years ago, and in MDOT’s eyes they don’t owe us anything,” Stafford said. “The city’s been doing it at-risk since then at no pay (from the state).”
Gaskin said he had approached the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors about sharing some of the cost for mowing.
“We have shared these bids with the (supervisors),” Gaskin said. “Obviously this is part of the county, too, and it’s an area that’s very visible.”
Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston told The Dispatch Thursday afternoon Gaskin had emailed him the bids, but the county had not received a formal request yet.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a struggle to help them right now because we haven’t planned for it in the budget,” Hairston said. “I do think the mowing on the interchanges can be a poor reflection on the county if they’re not done right.”
Gaskin did have one piece of good news for the council — the city now can apply for MDOT grants again.
In 2022 Columbus received a Transportation Alternatives Program grant to make a portion of Fifth Street between the Magnolia Bowl and the Highway 45-Highway 82 interchange more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. It later lost the grant because the city’s 2020 audit had not yet been completed.
That audit was finished in February, and the city eventually partnered with Lowndes County to get the TAP grant for a second time.
Gaskin confirmed after the work session Thursday that the way is now clear for the city to apply on its own.
“We are no longer on the naughty list,” he said. “We won’t need the county to help us again.”
Window closing for paving feedback
Monday is the last day for people to give feedback on the city paving plan, Stafford said.
The city held two town halls in March to both educate the public on how it made paving decisions, and also give residents the ability to make recommendations about needs and how the money should be spent.
As part of that process, an online survey was created to give feedback. Physical copies are available at City Hall, but it is also available online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/RSKCZ3D.
That survey goes away Monday, Stafford said.
“Most of the responses we’ve received were already on the city’s paving list,” Stafford said. “Our goal is within the next month to get a clean list with a cost.”
The list will be prioritized with the worst roads to the best ones, Stafford said.
And on the subject of the worst road, the city is still working to move the ball on one of the most notorious strips of pavement in Columbus — the south end of the road between Magnolia Place shopping center and Chick-fil-A.
The most deteriorated portion of that road is owned by California-based Magnolia Place Cooper LLC, and Gaskin said he had spoken to the owner, Ted Cooper, recently.
“He is ready to move on it,” he said. “But the bids that we sent to him previously are no good now.”
Stafford said Neel-Schaffer was working to get new repair quotes, and would send them to Cooper once they got them.
“(Cooper’s) portion is probably about 40 percent of the road, but it’s probably going to be 60-65 percent of the cost (to repair),” Stafford said. “The issues there are just much greater than ours.”
Gaskin said the city would consider taking in that portion of the road if it’s brought up to city standards.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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