Mayor Keith Gaskin broke a tie Tuesday night after Columbus City Council deadlocked on how to split paving money.
The city has about $6.9 million in internet use tax money on hand, according to City Engineer Kevin Stafford. That money, which comes from the state, may only be used for road, bridge and flood mitigation projects.
Before paving can get underway, the council must decide how to split that pot of money, and Tuesday night several proposals were put forward.
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard came up with the winning plan, suggesting allotting about $744,500 to pave parts of Gardner Boulevard, Military Road and Lehmberg Road, which each see more than 5,000 vehicles per day. He suggested then taking the remaining money and splitting it evenly among the city’s six wards, giving each councilperson purview over about $1.1 million.
“Gardner, Military and Lehmberg are roads that everyone in Columbus uses,” Beard said.
Not everyone was on board with that idea, however. Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart, Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens and Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones wanted to split all the money evenly among the six wards.
“I say we divide it down the middle,” Jones said. “It can be spent on watershed and flooding as well as paving, so if a councilman has a road that doesn’t need to be paved he can also spend it on (drainage) in his area.”
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene floated his own idea, which would have split the money among the wards depending on what percentage of roads in each needed to be paved.
According to Greene’s plan, Ward 1 would get 15% of the money; Ward 2 would get 8%; Ward 3 would get 20%; Ward 4 would get 21%; Ward 5 would get 19% and Ward 6 would get 16%.
“I thought the fair way was to use the percentage,” Greene said. “Fair and equal are not always the same. … If I was at No. 6 on this list, I would still want to do it this way. It’s not fair to have it equal.”
Vice Mayor and Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens didn’t see it that way.
“(Ward 2) is the stepchild,” Mickens said. “It’s the stepchild every time. It was the stepchild four years ago. Now I’m getting cut out again. My constituents are asking me what’s going on. They’re looking at me.”
Jones floated the idea of adding Seventh Street — which is mostly in his ward — to the most-traveled list, but Stafford said it didn’t quite make the cut. He estimated it sees about 3,800 vehicles per day, and he pointed out there were about 10 more roads in the city with that traffic volume.
Stewart moved, with a second from Mickens, to split the money equally among all six wards. However, Beard made a substitute motion, with a second by Greene, for his plan.
The vote on Beard’s motion deadlocked, with Greene, Beard and Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco voting yes and Stewart, Mickens and Jones voting no. Gaskin broke the tie by voting in favor.
Stafford told The Dispatch after the meeting the council still has to decide which specific roads would be paved in each ward. He estimated bids could go out late this year, and paving could get underway as soon as the spring.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion