Columbus and Lowndes County come to a compromise
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — An ongoing battle about who owes whom and how much has reached a compromise. The Columbus City Council and the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors held a joint meeting this morning to discuss some accounting issues.
Compromise was the name of the game at a Friday morning joint meeting of the Columbus City Council and the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors.
After a year-long back and forth of who has to pay what and to whom, the two bodies agreed that a committee would meet, work out details, and bring a number back that makes everyone happy and is within the legal limits of what can be done.
The Friday morning meeting tackled three points — inmate costs, E911, and shared costs of services such as recycling, the airport, animal control and highway mowing.
The county claims the city owes more than $518,000, and the city claims the county owes more than $172 thousand dollars.
After an hour-long meeting, they agreed to compromise.
Columbus Mayor Stephen Jones says he feels today’s meeting has things going in the right direction.
“Today was a good start. We’ll compromise, we’ll get it all behind us, and then we’ll move forward with interlocal agreements in the future that will work for both parties,”
Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston says they just want to do what’s best, not just for the citizens of Columbus but for all of the citizens in Lowndes County.
“Well, today I think was putting the framework together that we’re working together to come to some resolution of these outstanding payments that the city and the county owe to each other,”
Both Jones and Hairston say they’re looking forward to moving on from these issues and working together more in the future.
Jones and Hairston say they will sit down again after committee meets and try to come to a resolution.
