So much has been going on in Augusta, it’s hard to find a good place to start. Especially this past week with it being Masters week.
Washington Road was bumper-to-bumper, and the businesses were slamming and jamming to the beat of “cha-ching” as the green hit the register drawers.
So, this week’s column will be a hodge podge of various bits.
First of all, WELL DONE Mayor Garnett Johnson. A mayor who shows he not only talks the talk but walks the walk as well. A genuine act of inclusion by including the leaders of our surrounding sister cities to the Mayor’s Masters reception.
Thank you Columbia County Chairman Doug Duncan. Thank you Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon. Thank you North Augusta Mayor Briton Williams. Thank you all for attending and showing unity. Together we all can continue to grow and prosper our cities.
A gentleman by the name of Steve Barry has opened a new hospitality house on Azalea Drive just doors down from the National. It is named the “1018 Club.”
His group acquired this property a while back. Since then, they have invested large sums of money and turned this venture into a world class hospitality house.
Several of us locals met Mr. Barry when he stopped by the American Legion Post 63 to say hello and introduce himself. Over a period of time, we learned of his endeavor. So this past Wednesday evening when it opened, he graciously invited several of us to come.
Well, since the number of homeowners in the Lakemont and National Hills neighborhoods have golf carts, we thought we’d drive up in golf carts. So, we took three carts to the 1018 Club. We pulled up and lo and behold, it was valet parking. Yep, they valet parked three golf carts. Imagine that.
The inside of the club was quite unique. Enclosed areas and also four levels of decking space. All with bars and cuisine that was beyond simply delicious. Several large plasma screen TVs to watch the tournament while you wine and dine. While I may not have gotten through the gates of the National this year, I did get to experience the Masters hospitality.
As we were waiting for the valets to retrieve our golf carts, something quite amusing and unusual took place.
A gentleman was delivered his black Cadillac Escalade. He climbed inside and, just as quickly, got back out and exclaimed, “This isn’t my car.” Just then another valet pulled up with another exact black Cadillac Escalade that was his. Only in Augusta would there be so many identical Cadillac Escalades that they would be confusing.
All of the restaurants along the Washington Road corridor were full to capacity with waiting lines all week. Venues took advantage of the special ordinance variances to allow for serving alcohol and food in parking lots.
At least two restaurants had full service bars with roofs in their parking lots. Downtown restaurants were allowed to place tents on the sidewalks. One was so large it covered the width of the sidewalk. One restaurant had tables with chairs all the way to the curb, leaving a narrow walk thru for people to pass through
Now for me personally, I have no issue or problem with any of the businesses doing these things. After all, it is Master’s week, and it is crowded as can be. They are in the service business.
Masters week can help make or break some businesses, so allow them all the latitude to make it their stellar week, but do it for every business.
This leads to the question, why wasn’t Tacosushi in Surrey Center allowed this same option? It seems they tried but were stopped. One explanation by a commissioner was that it may not have met standards for safety.
Didn’t comply? Maybe someone in code enforcement can give an acceptable answer. I have doubts though.
Again, finance questions have arisen. This time it is concerning the budgets and expenditures for and of the cemeteries’ maintenance programs.
The three city owned cemeteries, Westview, Cedar Grove and Magnolia, are all perpetual care cemeteries. Each has a supposed budget of around $200,000 each.
Now, there is supposed to be a special funded account that takes care of the perpetual care. It draws interest, and the interest is used for the care. It has been said the funding is being depleted because the interest is not enough, and the fund will be depleted in a few years.
It’s reported that a law was passed that city’s don’t have to perform perpetual care on city owned cemeteries. We need clarification on this law.
The Parks and Recreation department is still responsible for the cemeteries. But the Warden of RCCI sends crews to each cemetery to do the grass cutting, left raking, tree and bush trimming and litter pick up.
How much is Augusta paying the RCCI for this service? Again, accountability.
On tomorrow’s agenda, Commissioner Catherine McKnight should be calling for a forensic audit. It was on the last meeting agenda but was not made due to Commissioner McKnight having to quickly leave due to personal emergency.
Again, count on the naysayers to vote against an audit for the same reason as before. No need, they say. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, they say. The city has a good clean yearly audit (should have caught the IRS fiasco but didn’t), they say.
You can rest assured that Commissioner McKnight will be pressed to change the motion in a variety of different ways. The rest of the commissioners will bully, manipulate, suggestk, rant and rave how this should be done. In other words, a watered down useless audit will be accepted or just a NO vote all around.
Pay attention and follow who does what. That will give you all the answers you need to know the truth.
