New faces during a Tuesday night Columbus City Council meeting brought a pair of new members to city posts and area committees, as a newly elected council breezed through a relatively brief session.
Newcomers Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens, Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box, Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem and Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin joined veterans Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor and Ward 4 Councilman Fred Stewart for the first time as the group voted to name Gavin the city”s vice mayor.
The board unanimously accepted Mayor Robert Smith”s recommendation and elected the Ward 6 newcomer to be Columbus second-in-command.
Gavin, who will be in charge of all city functions in Smith”s absence, replaced former vice mayor and Ward 5 Councilman Jay Jordan and will serve in the position until 2013.
In other business, the board:
- Voted to appoint Mickens to the Lowndes County Development Link board of directors.
Mickens will serve at the post for the next four years, and will replace former Ward 2 Councilwoman Susan Mackay on the board.
- Heard from Columbus Police Chief Joseph St. John as he recognized city information technology specialist Matt Manley for passing a state computer forensics test.
“Matt is now one of only a handful of people in Mississippi who are certified to do forensics analysis on a computer,” St. John said as he presented Manley a Chief”s Coin. “Columbus is the only place outside Jackson that is now certified to do computer forensics work.”
- Reappointed City Attorney Jeff Turnage to serve until 2013.
- Reappointed City Judge Curtis Austin to serve until 2013.
- Reappointed City Prosecuting Attorney Tim Hudson to serve until 2013.
- Renamed the Neel-Schaffer engineering company the city engineering firm until 2013.
- Authorized Smith to sign the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport”s agreement with the federal Airport Improvement Program.
Once granted, the AIP funds will be used to complete fencing around the airport and pave areas around a few newly constructed aircraft hangars.
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