Lowndes County representation on the Golden Triangle Development LINK Board of Directors is now set.
During Tuesday’s regular city council meeting, Mayor Robert Smith broke a tie vote supporting the appointment of Jim Mauldin. The other two applicants, Tiffany Sturdivant and Mildred Monroe, were not considered because Mauldin was nominated first.
Mauldin owns multiple Unishoppers Logistics franchises and is a former radio station owner and furniture salesman in Columbus.
Councilman Gene Taylor and Charlie Box supported Bill Gavin’s nomination of Mauldin. Councilmen Joseph Mickens, Marty Turner and Kabir Karriem opposed.
During its Oct. 7 meeting, the council was unable to reach a majority consensus on Mauldin or Sturdivant and did not consider Monroe. Taylor was absent from that meeting. Councilmen re-opened the application process, but no one else applied.
Lowndes County pays more money to the LINK for its economic and industrial development services than the city does and, as such, appoints three of the four members, making Mauldin the city’s lone appointment.
Supervisors recently appointed Rob Graham, Moak Griffin and Earl Weeks. They were the only three applicants for the county-appointed seats.
In other business, councilmen:
■ Approved a recommendation from the Columbus Lowndes Recreation Authority board to approve Greg Lewis as the new CLRA executive director effective Jan. 1. County supervisors must still approve the CLRA board’s recommendation;
■ Approved awarding the bid for city street paving projects to Falcon Contracting. The contractor’s base bid was $2,878,989. It will be financed by a 15-year bond issue approved by councilmen earlier this year that required a 1.1-mill property tax increase;
■ Approved including the city’s urban renewal district into the city’s central business district.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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