Columbus City Council tabled a request for $40,000 in matching funds for a road safety grant during Tuesday night’s meeting, but Mayor Keith Gaskin is vowing to fight another day.
Last summer the council voted to pursue a $160,000 U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All grant to perform a safety survey throughout the city.
“This is all about reducing deaths on the roadway, whether pedestrian deaths, biking deaths or vehicular deaths,” explained City Engineer Kevin Stafford. “The study will look at all modes of transportation you have in the city, and make recommendations about how to make them safer.”
Recommendations could range from installing sidewalks and bike lanes to lowering speed limits.
“The study will prioritize the needs,” Stafford said. “There will be multiple stakeholder sessions where people can give feedback. It’s very exhaustive.”
There are implementation grants that can come behind the study, Stafford noted.
“The federal highway department will not fund an implementation grant before you do this study,” Stafford said. “This is a seed study, and you get this in place so you can go on to the next step.”
Matching funds were not part of the motion to pursue the grant, with the understanding that the council would approve the match if the application was successful. The match is not in this year’s budget.
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene wanted to know what the timeline was for providing the matching funds.
“Is there a rush to get this done?” Greene asked.
“The timeline is that we want the study done in time to apply for next year’s (Department of Transportation) funding,” Stafford said. “It takes about six to nine months to do the study.”
Stafford said the money didn’t necessarily have to be put up immediately, and could potentially be paid for out of the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, which would go into effect Oct. 1.
Greene moved to table the request, and his motion passed unanimously.
During his Wednesday press conference, Gaskin said he intended to go back to the council and ask for the matching funds again.
“I think this is a grant we should seriously consider,” Gaskin said.
Gaskin said, according to the city’s records, between 2017 and 2021 there were 6,728 accidents on city streets, or an average of 3.7 accidents every day.
“Of those accidents 11 resulted in fatalities, a statistic we are eager to reduce to zero,” Gaskin said. “Fifty-eight resulted in serious injury, with another 282 resulting in minor injury.”
The city is struggling to make needed improvements, Gaskin said.
“For a small city with a tax base that has reduced over the past four decades, we find our ability to manage these accidents and maintain our infrastructure a major challenge,” Gaskin said. “We hope by reducing the regularity of these serious accidents our limited resources will stretch further to better our citizenry.”
Gaskin confirmed that if the matching funds can be pushed back to later this calendar year, they can be included in the FY 25 budget.
Otherwise the city will have to find a source now.
Gaskin suggested looking at sales tax revenue, which is so far higher than was budgeted.
“Our sales tax revenues are very healthy,” Gaskin said.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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