The Augusta Administrative Services Committee began discussing what to do with surplus city properties at the July 12 meeting at the prompting of one commissioner.
Catherine McKnight of District 3 had wanted the city to review its rolls.
The Boathouse at the Augusta Marina is one of the empty buildings that was up for discussion, and Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. said he had long-favored demolishing the building and putting a new facility in its place.
“Well, if we aren’t going to maintain it, then I guess we ought to just bulldoze it,” District 10 Commissioner John Clarke said.
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It appeared Clarke was being somewhat sarcastic as he next reminded commissioners that there has been significant interest by private entities wanting to buy the building for over fair market value and assume responsibility for the long-needed repairs.
The building, which is supposed to be maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department, has been closed for two years and has now been deemed unsafe due to an unstable porch and other issues that Clarke maintains were caused by neglect.
District 4 Commissioner Ben Hasan remarked that the building was heavily used before the Covid pandemic and said that he favored using recovered SPLOST funds to get the building back into service.
“The Boathouse is one of the biggest venues that we have on the river, I don’t think the city should be in the business of giving up prime real estate for less than a million dollars when we can bring it up to snuff,” Hasan said.
District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett said he was not opposed to demolishing the building and replacing it with something more “useful” and said that the city should take a broader approach on how to fully use the properties that the city owns along the river and perhaps attempt to engage in public-private partnerships.
“I would like my colleagues to, kind of, step back and take a look at that riverfront property. If a restaurant wanted to come there, there are ways to do it where the city can keep the property,” Garrett said.
Selling off the Old Engine Company 7 building on Central Avenue also hit a brick wall as Augusta Fire Chief Antonio Burden told commissioners that the site, while not used daily, remains a part of the department’s critical infrastructure. In the past, the site has been used as a staging area for hurricane relief efforts.
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Burden says that he would like to see the historic property turned into a museum and continue to be used for emergency relief when necessary.
“Old Fire Company 7 is very interesting in its historical significance. I am told it is one of the first in the entire United States to house a motorized fire engine,” Burden said.
The committee took no action and agreed to accept the discussion as information.
Another issue that came before the Public Service Committee, the issue of city grass maintenance, received little discussion and was simply accepted as information.
Local resident and business operator Kevin de l’Aigle prepared to give a presentation showing pictures of the median on Greene Street and was sternly warned prior to beginning not to engage in derogatory language or “personal attacks” on any city department head by District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom.
De l’Aigle showed multiple photographs showing tall saplings growing out of bushes that are in full view of the Municipal Building and produced past and current photos of the Emily Tubman monument on Greene Street. The early photo shows the monument surrounded by flowering azaleas and the current photo shows the monument nearly obscured by vines, weeds and wild growing trees.
“Is this really how far we have come?” de l’Aigle asked.
Frantom said that the commission should take the blame for not giving “clear direction” to department heads and promised that the issue of keeping the grass cut will be solved in the next budget cycle.
“Recently, this commission just discussed that we will come up with a more clear roadmap for not only Parks and Rec, but all department heads. We all have issues, we all have things that people reach out to us about and pet projects you can call it, but as a body we’ve got to do a better job of giving clear direction,” Frantom said.
Clarke said afterwards Frantom’s comments were merely kicking the can down the road and said the real issue is not money, but the commission’s lack of will to hold department heads responsible.
“For the amount of money we pay them, they should know their job description and what their responsibilities are, and pushing this off until budget time? We don’t give direction with the budget; we just give them money. The commission shouldn’t have to tell anyone how or when to cut grass, there needs to be accountability,” Clarke said.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
