Despite the gloom and doom being forecasted by many skeptical naysayers and people who don’t get out and about very often, nor do they visit other municipalities who have one and are reaping enormous benefits, I beg to differ with their opinions. Here are a few reasons why!
We relocated back home from Douglasville, Georgia, where we opened our first-class Greystone Amphitheater Venue in 2023 with Gladys Knight as the featured performer, and it was a gigantic success! The City of Columbus, Mississippi, “The Friendly City,” should be able to offer the citizens of this community a wholesome, safe, and relaxing venue where individuals and their families can come out and be entertained by top-tier musicians, live concerts, community engagement activities, historical, cultural, and Native American festivals, barbecue cook-offs, upscale art exhibitions, and county fairs—just to name a few tangible uses.
We have to acquire the matching funds to complete the project in its entirety. By my calculations, if we count the $1 million from the state, another million from the CVB, and then $500,000 from the city’s coffers, that’s only $2.5 million when we will need roughly $4-5 million dollars to finish the project. Now that we have some real skin in the game, we are in a much better position to go back to the state legislature and other private deep-pocket donors to acquire more matching funds, plus continue to seek possible additional grant funding.
If there’s one thing we must avoid at all costs, it is another round of “piece-mealing” this project to death by doing a little bit here and a little bit there until the year 2028 and be in the middle of the next presidential election and still not finished and operational.
We have to boldly and dramatically step up our game just to keep pace with Tupelo, Starkville and West Point. I never thought I would see the day whereby that reality is here and now, and Columbus is being outflanked, outpaced, out-developed, and out-planned by our neighboring cities.
I think the recurring common denominator that has been missing in our city government—and I’m certain that many will disagree with me—is a lack of forward thinking, tough, visionary leadership and the required teamwork from those elected officials whose job it is to work together day and night to get things done for our community! A divided house cannot stand.
So here we are with too many blighted houses all over town, no serious code enforcement program, too many unkept lots, unacceptable flooding all over the city, enough potholes to fill the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, property taxes and business taxes are going through the roof, and don’t get me started about the crime wave and public safety!
So, with all that being said and talked about all over town, a well-functioning and fully operational Riverwalk Amphitheater is just what Columbus needs right about now to brighten our spirits and give this town some hope.
Larry Watson
Columbus
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