A plan looks to be in place to improve the south end of the road between the Magnolia Place shopping center and Chick-fil-A.
Neel-Schaffer engineer Zach Foster told Columbus councilmen during a Thursday work session the low bid to improve the much-maligned road was $48,000 from Murphree Paving, and the owner of a private portion of the road has agreed to pay his share for the work.
“That’s a lump sum quote that includes milling, asphalt and striping,” Foster said.
The city and Magnolia Place Cooper LLC, which owns the shopping center containing Old Navy, each own a portion of the road. Foster said the firm had spoken with Ted Cooper, owner of Magnolia Place, who agreed to pay $27,750 for his portion. That leaves the city to pay the remaining $20,250.
In addition, Foster said, Cooper seemed to be in favor of giving the city easement to maintain the road after the repair work was completed.
“That’s something (city attorney) Jeff (Turnage) would have to work with him on and the council would have to vote to accept it,” Mayor Keith Gaskin said.
The issue will come before the council during its regular meeting on Tuesday.
Foster recommended moving forward sooner rather than later.
“I think you go ahead and get it done,” Foster said. “I don’t think prices are going to change a lot, and we just spoke to Cooper and he said he’s ready to move on it. So, I think you move now.”
Outsourcing right-of-way mowing
Another matter that resurfaced in the meeting was outsourcing mowing along the 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.
S&S Landscaping submitted a bid of $74,997 for the mowing, but it was tabled after Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones asked about having public works do the mowing instead.
During the work session, Chief Financial Officer Jim Brigham said it would be more cost effective to outsource the mowing.
“Based on feedback that we’ve gotten from the director (of public works Casey Bush), it would appear that it would take four employees,” Brigham said. “Four employees, when you look at $12 to $13 per hour plus benefits, that number would far exceed the $75,000 proposed low bidder from the outside. At this point, it is certainly my opinion that we go with the outside contractor.”
The mowing would be funded using a portion of the $200,000 budgeted for special projects.
Gaskin said he still believes there could be an agreement between the city and the county to split the costs.
“I will say that I do believe that there’s still an opportunity for the board of supervisors to assist in this,” Gaskin said. “… There is some discussion between them, and I think there is still a good possibility they will help us with this funding because of the location.”
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