The Augusta Commission met for over four hours before taking their annual break for Masters week. Two of the biggest items on the agenda were getting a handle on Augusta’s blight problem and holding a street party on James Brown’s birthday weekend.
Augusta has long dealt with blighted properties, especially in south and east Augusta. Some people buy properties with the intent of refurbishing them and never get around to it. Others basically abandon their properties which are then occupied by homeless people, sometimes lighting small fires to keep themselves warm and accidentally burning down the property.
MORE: Blighted Buildings Downtown Take Center Stage
District 5 Commissioner Bobby Williams says the current ordinances do not go far enough to combat the problem.
“We need to put teeth in the ordinance,” Williams said. “We are looking at Savannah and Macon as a guide on how to proceed.”
The city of Macon sends out 10-day notices to blighted property owners and if they get no response, they demolish the building, put a lien on the property and then foreclose. According to Williams, Macon’s model has been a success.
[adrotate banner=”30″]
“(Macon) took over 200 properties and then sold them off for $400 each to people who wanted to take care of them,” Williams said.
One idea discussed in the meeting was to enact a fine or extra tax that would be seven times greater than the issued tax bill on the property to force the owners to keep it in code. District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett says he wants to tackle the problem as much as his colleagues, but warns that the city needs to take a measured approach
“There are legal questions I have. If we have to hire people to enforce the ordinance, where does the funding coming from?” Garrett said. “We do need to address the problem, though. The process takes so long and it is so inefficient.”
Garrett pointed out that the current ordinance is vague when it comes to defining the word ‘blight.’ “Before we move forward, we need to define the word blight in a legal sense,” he said.
The commission voted unanimously to send the issue back to staff for 30 days and then present their findings to the full body.
Another issue before the body was honoring the late James Brown with a sort of street party on his birthday weekend, which falls around May 3.
Downtown promoter Coco Rubio presented his plans to block off a portion of James Brown Boulevard between Broad and Jones Street, where a giant mural of the Godfather of Soul is located.
[adrotate banner=”19″]
“I was really inspired by that mural,” Rubio told commissioners. “We are planning to have a deejay playing James Brown music along with pop-up art displays and the screening of a documentary on the making of the mural.”
While it seemed all commissioners were in favor of holding a birthday bash for Mr. Brown, some feared such planning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic could cause a public row with Sheriff
Richard Roundtree.
District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom pointed out that the sheriff has taken a hard line in not issuing permits to parades such as the St. Patrick’s Day annual parade and one that was being planned to celebrate the championship basketball teams at Josey and Cross Creek High Schools.
“What happens if the city approves it and then the Sheriff denies it?” Frantom mused.
MORE: Letters to the Editor: Conquering Our Urban Blight
Mayor Hardie Davis immediately shot back that the sheriff can’t tell the city what to do on city property. Those comments prompted Commissioner Bobby Williams to then ask that the city sponsor a parade for the star athletes.
“What we do for one, we should be able to do for everyone,” Williams said.
Ultimately, Williams voted no in protest, but the commission voted to give the hardest working man in show business his birthday street party.
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
[adrotate banner=”45″]
