LCBS withdraws pledge of support for Columbus clean-up program
LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors is withdrawing its pledge of financial support for a Columbus clean-up program.
Supervisors had approved sending $350,000 to the city to use in an effort to clean up blighted areas and dilapidated housing in Columbus.
But, Board President Trip Hairston said the city has not updated them on how that money would be spent or on the progress of the program.
Since the initial pledge, Columbus city leaders have also secured $3 million in federal grants for blight remediation.
County leaders have identified other areas in their budget where the $350,000 is needed more immediately.
Those needs are now taking precedence.
“We have to fight the fires that are the hottest, and right now the condition of the trucks in the road department is burning hottest. We have our needs that the taxpayers of Lowndes County have and use, for the road department, we have to use ad valorem tax money for the road department. And, that is the fire that is burning the hottest right now. So, we are going to divert those funds away from the blighted program that we don’t know where we are with it, to the needs we need to address now,” said Hairston.
Hairston said the county has already signed over $450,000 of its ARPA money to the city to help pay for watershed and drainage projects.
