Columbus city council is set to make repairs to drainage issues
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Severe weather over the past few months has brought major problems for many homeowners and residents in Columbus.
After hearing concerns from the community, city officials said they’re moving forward with plans to fix some of the city’s biggest drainage issues.
Mayor Stephen Jones and city council members are working on ways to repair areas with significant drainage damage.
Years of heavy rain and repeated flooding have taken a toll, especially in North Columbus, including Bluecutt Road and Highway 45.
“Along Highway 45 over the years, it’s kind of filled in the ditch way with overgrowth and pockets of sand and everything that needs to be excavated on both sides, and what I’ve titled this is Highway 45 South Train,” Jason Spears said. “Because we are trying to get all that water that’s running off the ridges in Columbus and try to push it down towards the river. Right now, a lot of those systems we’ve had Public Works doing a great job along Toughline, working on getting those areas cleaned up.”
Ward 6 City Councilman Jason Spears is hearing from community members dealing with drainage issues in the area.
He said it’s an emphasis to get the problem handled quickly and effectively.
“It really comes back to one common denominator, and it’s those specific ditches that, in a larger system, get that water away,” Spears said. “So I just felt like that this is one of the things that we had to start with and will be able to go from this to the next iteration of plans to get something with more of a generational impact and won’t have as much maintenance to get that water away from properties.”
Addressing drainage is just one of several infrastructure needs city leaders are looking to tackle.
Jones said he knows the severe weather can make this an even bigger issue.
“You see water holding there for a while, that means you have an issue there,” Jones said. “If it rains real hard and that water goes down the next day, or it goes down within a couple of hours, that means that nothing is a problem; we just got too much rain. So that is some of the things people need to realize, and we are going to do our part, but some stuff is just out of our control.”
Public Works has started working on the project, like cleaning out some drains in some areas in Columbus.
