It will at least be two more weeks before the city’s planned fossil park gets a name.
The city council on Tuesday was moments away from voting to name the park after the late Jack Kaye, a Columbus native and well respected geologist. But a 4-2 majority opted instead to wait until it could adopt an updated policy on naming city facilities in general.
“We want to have a policy so that if it comes up again, we can say, ‘We’re using this policy’ and not just choosing a name,” Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones said during discussion on the issue. “… I just don’t want to open us up to somebody else next week coming up here saying, ‘Well, we want to name this.’”
The city began planning an estimated $700,000 fossil park at Luxapalila Creek near Propst Park in November to capitalize on renewed interest in fossils being found there from the Cretaceous Period about 80 million years ago.
A committee helping plan the park recommended naming the fossil park for Kaye, a decorated World War II pilot who taught geology and earth science at both Mississippi State University and Mississippi University for Women. He was among the first to find authenticated dinosaur fossils in the Luxapalila Creek, and those fossils are on display at various museums.
Kaye, who died in 2012, was also known for taking area children to hunt fossils in creeks throughout Lowndes County.
Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco moved to approve the naming Tuesday, drawing a second from Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart.
The city is amid updating its facilities naming policy, however, and Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard asked if a draft of the new one was ready.
“Not yet,” City Grants Administrator Susan Wilder said. “But the reason we need his name on this now is because we’ve got two grants in that’s going to be paying for some signage, brochures and things like that; and two, we’ve got groups we want to approach that knew Dr. Kaye, and it would be better for it to have that name before we go to them for funding.”
Mayor Keith Gaskin said the new policy would be “ready soon” and address things like naming streets in a way that coordinated better with 911 for honorary street names and spelled out how naming opportunities would work for Propst Park facilities.
“This is a little different in that it is honoring somebody who really has national recognition,” Gaskin said. “All the folks supporting the park are really encouraging us to do this so they can keep moving forward.”
City Attorney Jeff Turnage, who joined the meeting remotely, suggested the council could name the fossil park after Kaye, then place a moratorium on naming any other facility until it adopted the new policy.
Answering a question from Beard, Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett – also attending remotely – assured the council the new policy draft would be ready by the council’s May 29 work session.
That led Jones to offer a substitute motion to table naming the fossil park until the policy is in place, which could happen at the June 3 council meeting.
Jones said he had no problem with the Kaye name for the fossil park. Beard asserted it “will be named after Kaye,” just not without delay.
DiCicco asked Wilder if there was a hard deadline for setting the name.
“No, but we’ve been waiting on this a long time,” she said.
“But you don’t have a deadline, so two weeks won’t hurt,” Jones interjected, before he, Beard, Stewart and Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens, who represents Ward 2, voted to table the naming.
DiCicco, along with Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene, opposed.
In other business, the council:
■ rescinded a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., originally planned for June, to be considered by the next council after lobbying firm Worth Thomas Consulting recommended the city wait until July or August;
■ approved beer sales for the annual Juneteenth Festival at Sim Scott Park and the Southside Blues Festival and Townsend Park (5-1, Mickens opposed);
■ approved a permitted use request for Gayle Guynup to convert the first floor of the old railroad depot at 1302 Main St. into residential apartments; and
■ reappointed Jerry Fortenberry and Emily Johnson to the Historic Preservation Commission.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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