Lowndes County supervisors unanimously approved a new lease to allow AbilityWorks to continue using its current facility near the Columbus-Lowndes Airport.
The local branch of AbilityWorks, a network of community rehabilitation programs that provide vocational assessment, job training, and actual work experience for individuals with disabilities, has worked out of a 25,000 square-foot, county-owned building on Datco Industrial Road for 20 years under a $500 per-month lease. The lease agreement was set to expire in February.
Supervisors discussed the matter at their Dec. 30 meeting and were given pause when County Administrator Ralph Billingsley said AbilityWorks hadn’t paid rent in the 20 years since moving into the building.
The new lease, which is good for 10 years, stipulates that AbilityWorks must pay the $500 in rent on the building each month. At the board’s previous meeting, Sanders said he talked to an AbilityWorks official who said the organization believed the county had waived the rent.
County Attorney Tim Hudson also said the new lease stipulates the county will not be responsible for maintenance on the building. Though the county shouldered that responsibility in the original agreement reached in 1997, Hudson said AbilityWorks had performed maintenance anyway and likely viewed that as making up for the rent.
“They showed the $67,000 in maintenance they’ve done over the last 20 years, so that compensated, in their mind, for the rent,” Sanders said.
AbilityWorks is managed and operated by the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services. Billingsley reported to the board Friday the building on Datco Industrial Road was built using funds from a grant Rehabilitation Services had secured for the county.
CLRA
In other business, the board authorized Billingsley to talk to Columbus city officials to determine if Jan. 23 or 24 work as potential dates for the first meeting of a joint city-county Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority transition committee.
The committee will discuss how to approach changes to CLRA and will consist of city and county representatives, along with CLRA Director Greg Lewis.
Last fall, the supervisors approved a resolution of the county’s intent to withdraw from the current interlocal agreement that governs the recreation authority.
The move triggered fears that the county intended to split from the city entirely for recreation. Sanders softened his stance in the fall and said the county might continue to assist city parks financially, if in a reduced role.
Additionally, Hudson recommended supervisors consider approving a resolution requesting the state legislature authorize the county to give money to the city for recreation.
“It’s come up in the past that we could give a bulldozer, that we could give land,” he said. “We could go do work. But one of the auditors said we couldn’t give cash. So we’re just going to clear it up and be authorized to do it.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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