Columbus has formally joined forces with Lowndes County District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks on a multi-faceted initiative aimed to prevent crime.
The city council voted unanimously Tuesday to collaborate with Brooks in forming a Crime Prevention Task Force — one that would enlist widespread community involvement.
Brooks, who addressed the council during its Tuesday evening meeting in the Fant Memorial Library at Mississippi University for Women, said he presented the partnership not in his capacity as a county supervisor but as a citizen of Columbus. He and Mayor Robert Smith have discussed the possibility of forming the task force since last year, both said.
“People often ask, ‘What are the police going to do (about crime)?'” Brooks told the council. “I think we put the question back to the community, ‘What are you going to do?’ Police can’t be everywhere.”
Brooks proposes recruiting citizens to form subcommittees that would focus on youth development, education and community involvement, neighborhood enhancement and revitalization, community policing and changing the perception of Columbus as a dangerous city. The task force also would include an executive committee of community leaders, such as the mayor, Police Chief Fred Shelton and District Attorney Scott Colom.
Two co-chairs — one black, one white — would become the faces of the task force, Brooks said, and coordinate the subcommittee’s efforts into a streamlined approach.
“We can not talk about it. We can deny it. But we have … issues in our community,” Brooks said. “… There are always going to be people who complain. I think we need some of those people to be on the task force.”
Now that the council has endorsed the task force, the next step is identifying the co-chairs, Brooks said. From there, recruitment will begin for subcommittee members.
That process could involve media advertising or contacting local nonprofits for recommendations. Brooks also mentioned contacting people who attended a Lowndes County Foundation-sponsored community conversation at Trotter Convention Center earlier this year, since crime prevention proved a key community issue during that event.
Smith, after Tuesday’s meeting, called the task force “a good start” to increasing safety and improving the overall perception of the city.
“I think this can be very effective in decreasing crime, especially when you get stakeholders, such as citizens and businesses, to buy in,” he said. “Once they buy in, I think they will all see that we’re trying.”
Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box also sounded optimistic about what the task force could accomplish.
“Any time you can get more community involvement — more people talking to one another — it’s a good thing,” Box said.
Property acquisition
In other business Tuesday, the council agreed to buy property on Waterworks Road that is prone to flooding so the drainage issues could be mitigated.
The council agreed to pay $85,000 to Stanley Taggart to purchase the tract, located across from Maranatha Faith Center near the old Kerr-McGee railroad crosstie manufacturing plant.
Closing for the sale is delayed until October so it can be included in the city’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget. After closing, Taggart will have 60 days to relocate residents in three apartment units located on the property.
Kerr-McGee, and its successor Tronox, used the toxic chemical creosote to treat its crossties at the site until it closed in the early 2000s. The Greenfield Environmental Trust is administering more than $60 million from a court settlement to clean and redevelop old Kerr-McGee sites.
City Engineer Kevin Stafford said since Taggart’s property isn’t contaminated, the Trust cannot purchase it. However, once the city buys it, the Trust can pay for apartment demolition and any drainage mitigation there since it’s located close to the old plant site.
The property appraised for $77,000, Stafford reported, but City Attorney Jeff Turnage said the law allows the amount the city will pay above that appraisal to be considered a negotiated “administrative settlement.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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