Columbus City Council unanimously gave its blessing Tuesday to a Main Street Columbus effort to give Leadership Plaza a facelift.
Main Street Director Barbara Bigelow and board of directors member Penny Bowen asked the council for permission to pursue a grant for up to $50,000 toward the cost of the renovation.
Leadership Plaza is the small park at the corner of Fifth Street South and College Street, adjacent to Hollyhocks.
“We have identified a grant for up to $50,000 to do improvements to a downtown area,” Bowen said. “Leadership Plaza has not been improved for about 35 years. It’s just been on maintenance mode.”
There is an arbor with a vine growing on it on site now, and Bowen said it was time for that to go.
“It looks out of date and not representative of our downtown,” she said.
Bowen said Main Street hired a landscape architect to come up with a new concept for the plaza.
“We would remove all of the plantings with the exception of four ornamental trees and then the three large oak trees that go along College Street,” she said. “The concrete and brick would remain as-is, and we would take down the arbor and construct a new pavilion.”
The estimated cost for the landscaping, a new pavilion and adding some lighting comes to around $47,000, Bowen said.
Bowen said Main Street needed the city’s permission to apply for the grant because the city owns the plaza.
Bowen also asked the city to consider pitching in to fix the sidewalk near the three oak trees.
“The trees have uprooted the concrete and created some pretty dangerous spots,” Bowen said.
Bigelow estimated that in one place the concrete was about six inches out of place.
“We’re very concerned about the liability issues there,” she said.
City Engineer Kevin Stafford got bids to fix the concrete, and the cost came to around $11,000, Bowen said.
Mayor Keith Gaskin asked Stafford if the city could handle the concrete work.
“I talked to (Public Works Director Casey Bush) and he said based on the amount of work his concrete guys had right now he would prefer not to tackle this at this time,” Stafford said.
Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens asked what Main Street would do if it didn’t get the full amount via the grant.
“We don’t know how much the grant is going to be, it might be $15,000 or $20,000,” he said. “I’m trying to see if they don’t give you but $15,000, where’s the rest going to come from?”
“We’ll have to find some other grants,” Bigelow said. “We have at least three other grant opportunities that would cover this kind of project. We haven’t asked any private citizens, but we have some community organizations on our list that we could go to if we need to.”
This particular grant application period closes Oct. 31, Bigelow said.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones moved that Main Street be given permission to apply for the grant, and was seconded by Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard. It passed unanimously.
No decision was made on the concrete work.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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