Columbia City Council + Nov. 1, 6 pm & 8, 9 am
By John Temple LigonTemple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Tom Legare

November 1

City council met last Wednesday afternoon at 6 pm for its regular meeting. The two major issues of the evening were Five Points parking and the East Gervais median.

Five Points

Dennis Hiltner of the Gourmet Shop and Randy Dennis of 2Gs, (pictured on page one) both on Saluda Avenue, asked council for Christmas shopping parking considerations while the streets are still disrupted with construction. They asked to give every visitor a 90-minute free parking opportunity. They also asked for free parking on Saturdays, just like everywhere else the city has meters.

New East Gervais streetscape median

Tom Legare , who lives on the northeast corner of Westminster and Gervais, won't be able to turn left to go home every evening once the median is complete. The new median will block his access. He remembered the new turn lane finally put into place 30 years ago when Gervais was widened. Now with the new median, Legare loses his turn lane and Gervais is narrowed. Titus Glover , on the other hand, is happy to see the median continue past Manning without an opportunity to take a left turn to enter the neighborhood. Glover lives at the corner of Stratford and Manning, and he and his wife and his toddler look forward to less traffic. With less access to Manning off Gervais, there should be less traffic coming down Stratford, to include door-to-door cosmetics sales. Result: less Avon on Stratford.

Titus Glover

November 8

City council convened Wednesday morning at 9 am for its regular meeting. All council members were present: Daniel Rickenmann, Sam Davis, E.W. Cromartie, Mayor Bob Coble, Anne Sinclair, Tameika Isaac Devine, and Kirkman Finlay.

Performance contracting

Allison Baker and Ollie Johnson

Kim Smith and Chris Mills , representatives from Johnson Controls, presented their performance-based solutions to council. Their company, Johnson Controls, recommends the city contract with them for help in upgrading city facilities for energy savings. Sinclair suggested the city author a request for qualifications to be sent out among Johnson Controls competitors. She also asked if the city could pay a flat fee for the audit and recommendations instead of a percentage of the savings ad infinitum.

Smoking

Council approved a smoking ordinance that would allow smoking in defined bars, places where food was only 15% of the revenue. With rare exception, smoking is banned in all other public indoor places.

Golf

Allison Baker , assistant city manager, and Ollie Johnson of First Tee Columbia asked council to help establish a First Tee Advisory Committee to promote golf among Columbia's young people. Rickenmann noted he was on the board for First Tee Spartanburg, and he highly recommended Columbia get on board. Council agreed.

Tom Cox

Emergency curfew

Cromartie introduced the idea of an emergency curfew at Bethel Bishop Apartments, where shootings and assaults are all too common. The curfew, recommended by Charles Austin (city manager and former police chief), goes into effect November 15 for a run of 60 days.

Parking on Lady Street

Developer Ben Arnold appealed to council to rezone property along both sides of Lady Street between Gadsden Street and the railroad trench. Tom Cox, whose shop occupies 724 Lady Street, warned council of current and future parking problems. Cox relocated in the Vista 11 years ago, and parking at the time was ideal, but it began to get worse and has continued to get worse. His fear is Arnold's project could tip the area over the edge. Cox asked council for a thorough parking study to conclude with an area-wide upgrade in the parking condition.

Chris Mills and Kim Smith

Next meeting

Council meets Wednesday, November 15, at 9 am, for its regular meeting. Its public hearing is at 10 am. Both are in council chambers, third floor, City Hall, corner of Main and Laurel.