City leaders hold meeting to discuss road improvements in Columbus

A smoother ride is what everyone wants in their town

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – A smoother ride is what everyone wants in their town.

City leaders in Columbus hope citizens can help them identify potholes and other problem areas. People are in the trotter convention center listening to city leaders and also voicing their concerns about roads in the city.

Columbus City engineer Kevin Stafford knows people throughout the friendly city have a common complaint of poor road conditions.

A meeting at the trotter convention center Thursday will allow residents the opportunity to express their concerns about the problem places on their streets or roads, but that’s not all.

“Not everything is going to need an overlay which is really what this town is all about but we still want the feedback so if there’s a section or a block that’s strictly sidewalk that needs to be replaced we want to know about that,” said Stafford.

Stafford said roads aren’t the only project the street ordinance can cover sidewalks can be fixed as well as the lining in the roads for parking or bike lanes can apply.

If he and his team can’t address the issue, it may be a job for another city department.

“Some people at times say that lighting on the street is not adequate and that may be something that paving can’t pay for, we can pass that on to Columbus light and water and all of a sudden the street safety is increased there because the lighting is upgraded,” said Stafford.

Stafford said the community’s input is important because the people who live here travel the roads. He and his team already have a map of places they feel need to be fixed and he says he hopes those are most of the places that people point to; however, he knows that there are some that aren’t.

“A lot of people are locating and living places they can walk or bike or roller skate whatever it may be and there are a lot of ways to travel beyond a car these days costs are up gasoline is up so I think the complete street ordinance which is why the city passed it back in 2010 is important to people,” said Stafford.

The meeting ended at 6:30 p.m., and city leaders are hopeful that they can get work started as soon as possible for some of the communities that need it.

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