Columbus mayor updates citizens on several projects and police chief search

What's Next for the City of Columbus?

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Columbus city leaders are looking for ways to move forward with several projects and the search for a new police chief.

Columbus Mayor Keith Gaskin took time out Wednesday morning to update the public on some of the issues facing the city and plans to address them.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the City Council voted to make Assistant Police Chief Doran Johnson interim chief upon Chief Fred Shelton’s retirement next month.

They also got the ball rolling on finding a permanent replacement.

“The council voted to establish a search community, and I believe we decided we would have at least ten people on there and three or four from the community,” said Mayor Keith Gaskin.

Columbus’s Chief Financial Officer, Jim Brigham, reports that the city has about 62,000 dollars of ARPA money that hasn’t been allocated.

Mayor Gaskin has been trying to find the best ways to leverage the Federal money. He and some of the council members were recently in Washington to see if there were other funds available for some long-term projects.

“There, we learned about some other programs from the department of AGG that we can potentially have funding from, and we did a follow-up letter with the department of AGG on the Monday after we returned, making them aware of the whole 48 million we need for the all the projects within the city. Now, are we going to receive all the money? We don’t know just yet,” said Mayor Gaskin.

If and when the city of Columbus receives additional government funding, one area Gaskin would like to improve is the city’s parks and recreation.

“I am 100 percent 110 percent behind bringing Propst Park back, but I want to make sure that we are doing it in a way that it’s going to be the best use for our citizens and the best use for city I think if we do Propst Park correctly that can help revitalize that area with business and things across there,” said Mayor Gaskin.

Work is also continuing on the amphitheater. Gaskin would like to see the entertainment venue welcoming guests soon.

“A lot of people are interested in an amphitheater as are we it is a top priority of mine to get something moving this year and we’re working really hard to get that complete,” said Mayor Gaskin.