Columbus councilmen wrapped up a two-day tour of the city’s six wards Wednesday in preparation for today’s strategic planning retreat.
The council toured wards 4, 5 and 6.
The themes of drainage, flooding and quality of life introduced Tuesday when councilmen and department heads visited the first three wards were once again prevalent, particularly in Wards 4 and 5. Marty Turner and Kabir Karriem, who represent those areas, stopped in specific areas needing improvements so their colleagues could see for themselves the issues at hand.
Ward 4
The area of greatest concern to Turner was a ditch on Seventh Avenue North which has eroded to the point that several pipes are exposed. It is part of the drainage system from what was formerly the Kerr-McGee chemical plant on 14th Avenue North, which was shut down and sealed from the public after it was found that creosote — a wood treatment chemical linked to cancer — was penetrating into the soil. The end of one pipe is propped up by cinder blocks and tied to the base of a tree by the ditch to keep it from collapsing into the ditch. The ditch is also riddled with litter, but city crews can’t address that because of the contamination of the ditch.
The city once received a grant to rehabilitate the drainage system until the creosote was found, at which point the project was halted due to Environmental Protection Agency constraints.
Karriem represents Ward 5 but was visibly frustrated with the living conditions of those around the ditch.
“This is how people are living,” Karriem said. “This is contamination going through here and they can’t even clean the ditches and stuff out. We need to get an understanding of what we can and cannot do.”
Turner said the area had been long neglected and addressing the living conditions should be high on the list of priorities to be discussed at the retreat.
“I’m glad everybody could come see and be aware of what’s going on over here,” Turner said. “These are the areas that, if you’re not from here, they’re not going to be seen and people are not going to worry about them. I have to worry about them because this is my ward. We’re trying to bring awareness and people will start understand why we need to allocate funds to save areas and get the quality of life up.”
“This is sad,” said Ward 6 councilman Bill Gavin when viewing the ditch.
Turner also took colleagues and officials to areas on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, 23rd Avenue North and behind an apartment complex on 27th St. North to show officials where more drainage issues and flooding were taking place. Twenty-third Avenue resident Mary Irby said she had been experiencing flooding problems since she moved there more than 30 years ago.
“When it rains, you can see the water running from all the other streets and it runs around here,” Irby said. “It also runs down my back yard. There’s a ditch that is hardly ever cleaned out. When it rains hard all day long, it doesn’t have time to drain off.”
Ward 5
Karriem said his ward was unique in that it had what he called “the good, the bad and the ugly.” The Riverwalk and soccer complex are in his territory. So is the Eveningside apartment complex, a haven for criminal activity, he said, but the owner of the apartment has a note soon due. If the deadline is not met, an arrangement can be made through the office of federal programs and the Mississippi Regional Housing Authority to seize the property and make the agency the owner of the apartments.
“At that point, we’re hoping we can get rid of these apartments,” Karriem said. “It’s possible with the help of the mayor’s office, housing authority and federal programs, that we might be dealing with this issue.”
Also in his ward are numerous blighted properties including rental properties, which he said can be addressed through stronger code enforcement. He added that the location of some of those properties, including Eveningside apartments, are on Military Road, a main thoroughfare in Columbus.
“I don’t care what part of town you live in. I don’t care where you’re from. You’re coming down Military,” Karriem said. “This is what you see. I’m bringing it to the mayor and council so we can put our heads together as we move forward in this administration.”
Karriem also made stops on First Street, where there is little room between the side of the road and the slope leading into the Tombigbee River. Currently there are posts with wire coupled with vegetation guarding pedestrians, but Karriem said officials should consider how to make the area more friendly for people walking down the road.
He also took officials to the Magnolia Bowl and emphasized the need to work with its owner, the Columbus Municipal School District, to redevelop the site.
“This is one of the eyesores of the city and certainly in Ward 5, but I…see a convention center or an amphitheater here with some good parking for downtown,” Karriem said.
He also showed an empty lot across from the intersection of 12th Avenue North and Military Road that he said was currently owned by Lowndes County. He suggested exploring the possibility of asking the county to donate the land and teaming with local non-profit organizations to build homes there.
Karriem said most of all during his part of the tour, he wanted to illustrate what he believes is the biggest problem facing his ward: Housing.
“We do a hell of a good job beautifying Main Street, or as I call it, ‘The front door of the house,’ Karriem said. “We’ve got some policy issues and concerns when you get to the back door of the house. I just hope that after all the mayor and councilmen saw … we can put some policies in place that can help some of the folks we met today.”
Ward 6
Gavin emphasized economic development on the Highway 45 corridor as a means of building more funding that could help address quality of life issues like the ones in Wards 4 and 5.
“All of our wards are different and have different needs,” Gavin said. “Our biggest concern is street paving and flooding is always a concern even though we’re in a higher elevation area of the city. One of my big items is retail development and Highway 45 is the engine by which to do this. All the wards share in the benefits from the retail businesses on the Highway 45 corridor. All of us share the benefits of that because the money goes back to the city and is evenly spread out through the wards to take care of drainage problems and street paving.”
New sidewalks, street lighting and other aesthetic upgrades can be made to make that area more attractive to businesses and shoppers, he said.
He added there are large ditches flowing water into Moore’s Creek, including from Holly Hills Road and Highway 45, which can sometimes create flooding issues during heavy rains, but measures have recently been taken to mitigate the issue. A berm the city began work on years ago was recently completed this fall and the ditches were cleaned out, he said.
“It’s taken a while to get that done, but … it should help those people in the Northaven Woods area where there had been some flooding,” Gavin said.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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