Lowndes County has pledged $850,000 toward a plan for upgrading and improving neighborhood parks.
And the city of Columbus plans to look for "creative ways" to fund the project.
During a Thursday city-county intergovernmental relations committee meeting, District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders said the county has set aside $850,000 for the parks project.
Earlier in the month, Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority Executive Director Roger Short presented a $1.6 million plan for upgrading and improving neighborhood parks.
"We are going to look at creative ways to finance this," Columbus Mayor Robert Smith said at the Thursday meeting, held in the supervisors' boardroom at the Lowndes County Courthouse.
City officials plans to discuss the issue at a later time.
In other matters, Smith presented supervisors with a letter requesting to use county workers to assist with repairing potholes.
"I am not against the city, but we are overworked. It is not up to the county Road Department to do the city's road work," Sanders said.
"All I did was make the request for help," Smith said.
The supervisors will put the matter on the agenda for their next meeting, Sanders said. The supervisors are scheduled to meet Nov. 30 at 9 a.m.
Committee members also heard from Chris Ramsden of Raytheon Corp., who presented information on updating radio communications throughout the county.
Allen Baswell is a staff reporter for The Dispatch
HK | 11/20/2009 11:47:00 AMmark as inappropriate this is nuts! The money needs to spent in better ways---there are many ways it can be spent.. the parks will just be trashed after our money is wasted on them..
For Park Upgrades | 11/20/2009 12:30:00 PMmark as inappropriate I support Park upgrades. Mississippi is the most obese state in the nation. We need upgrade and options that are free for Youth and Adults. Since this says County I have hopes that the County Parks will be included in these upgrades as well. Please do not forget that the County is growing faster than the city.
Leeroy | 11/20/2009 12:51:00 PMmark as inappropriate Isn't the county about to waste money on a new park that will flood every time it rains? What a waste of money. I guess that is what happens with you have fools on the county board that would rather get into pissing matches than do something actually worthy of taxpayer money. I am going to start putting the televised meetings on Youtube strictly for comedic purposes.
