Columbus city officials look to expand city’s court system

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The City of Columbus is looking to expand its court system.

It would be called an Environmental Court.

The cases would include things such as dilapidated housing, code enforcement, fire code, and animal control issues.

City officials took a trip to Hattiesburg on Thursday to learn more about how the proposed court would look.

The goal is to take some of the caseloads off of the current municipal court operations.

Court Administrator Wendy Blunt believes the new court is needed.

“You would come to court and stand before the judge and you can have a little more leeway when talking about your cases. You can give the judge more details and specifics about why you haven’t cleaned up around your house or your building or your property, and that way it would benefit you to come so you can set up some type of payment plan or you can understand what are the true benefits of what a code enforcement officer does,” said Blunt.

The logistics of how the court would be organized have not been worked out. It’s also unclear when the city council could vote on the measure.

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