Tuesday night’s Columbus City Council meeting can be summarized in one word: “tabled.”
Two requests by Mayor Keith Gaskin for maintenance and landscaping on Highway 82 and Highway 45 were both tabled in rapid succession, and they were among four items that were either tabled or nearly so.
The table-thon seemed to stem from the council’s deadlock over whether to begin construction of a $3.4 million expansion to Propst Park that would add four youth baseball fields and improve lighting at the Field of Dreams.
After more than half an hour of increasingly heated debate, Gaskin broke the tie in favor of tabling the request to give Chief Financial Officer James Brigham more time to look at funding options.
Later in the meeting, Gaskin asked the council to approve a $75,000 bid to outsource grass cutting along rights-of-way on five interchanges along Highway 82 and the straightaway between the Highway 45 North interchange and 18th Avenue North in front of Leigh Mall. The bid was presented at a Thursday work session.
Chief Financial Officer James Brigham told the council the cost would come out of a $200,000 special projects fund he had set aside in the budget for unforeseen circumstances.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones asked Gaskin to look into having Public Works do it instead.
“Would it be cheaper for them to work overtime, maybe, and cut on Fridays when they’re off?” Jones asked. “Have you considered that?”
Most city departments work a four-day week.
“As far as figuring dollar amounts over time, I would guess it might be,” Gaskin said. “I don’t know.”
Jones asked Gaskin to crunch the numbers and compare paying Public Works overtime to cut the right-of-way.
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene moved, with a second from Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard, to table the request until that comparison could be made. The motion passed unanimously.
The next punt was a request to do outsource landscaping for seven flower beds in the median on Highway 45 North, stretching from Ninth Avenue North up to the intersection at the Beaux Bridge restaurant. The low bid there came to about $68,000.
“We are looking at more hardy plant types,” said City Engineer Kevin Stafford. “… There will be a lot less cutting and watering, and they can stand the oil and grease that come off the road and splash onto them.”
“Can we check with (Public Works Director Casey Bush) and see what they can do?” Jones asked. “They can also work overtime.”
Greene asked if Gaskin also planned to pay for the flower beds out of the special projects fund, and Brigham said that paying for both the grass cutting and the landscaping would take a chunk out of that money.
“There’s $200,000, and it’s $68,000 for the beds and $75,000 for the mowing,” Brigham said. “There would be a little bit left, but not much.”
Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett said she would check the costs for having Public Works do both grass cutting and landscaping in the medians.
With that, Greene moved to table the request, with a second from Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart. It passed unanimously.
Earlier in the meeting, The council split again after wrangling over whether or not to hire security guards for City Hall before Gaskin again broke the tie in favor.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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