Several years ago, the city launched what it called the “Keep Augusta Beautiful” initiative; however, the initiative has not produced any substantive results, and the trail leads only to a couple of cubicles somewhere within the bowels of the Municipal Building and a city bank account with questionable financial outlays.
It appears that Keep Augusta Beautiful was made an offshoot of some kind through the Engineering Department.
When local resident and business owner Kevin de l’Aigle gave his presentation to the Augusta Commission on July 12 about the failure of the city to keep the grass cut along medians and in city owned cemeteries, he asked what ever became of the Keep Augusta Beautiful initiative.
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District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom seemed to stumble over his words in response.
“We did, uh, recently…disband, or are disbanding that organization from the standpoint that those funds are going back into engineering to, uh, help beautify the city more,” Frantom said.
Exactly how much taxpayer funding that has gone to the initiative is not clear, but the city check register shows that since its inception in 2018, Keep Augusta Beautiful has written nearly $100,000 in checks and many of those expenditures are curious at best.
City records show that $6,640 has been spent apparently on dues to Keep America Beautiful Inc. and the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation.
The initiative paid $14,716 to Tradebe Environmental services, a private company out of Columbia, SC that specializes in radioactive waste removal and storage. The check registry shows that Tradebe was not given one lump sum, but rather multiple checks were written on the same day in amounts smaller than the Procurement Department cap of $5,000.
Purchases in the amount of $9,741 were made through Northern Tools, which sells heavy equipment such as generators, pressure washers, power tools, lawn and garden equipment and farm supplies. Again, the company was paid by multiple checks in lesser amounts all cut on the same day, which would avoid scrutiny from the Procurement Department.
Another set of checks show that a company called Tractor & Equipment Company was paid $7,069 in equipment purchases.
Keep Augusta Beautiful amassed enough power equipment to clear cut a forest, but apparently had trouble finding volunteers to man the equipment as the check registry shows that $11,816 was paid to Augusta Staffing Associates for temp workers.
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According to the city website, the initiative had two employees. Sholonda Smith, who is listed in the records as a customer service representative making just over $30,000 a year. However, the Keep Augusta Beautiful check registry shows a total of $4,492 in checks written to her personally.
Another employee, Edkesha Anderson, who is listed as a program manager, has received $4,362 in individual payouts through the initiative’s checking account.
In contrast, former Augusta Commissioners Andy Cheek, Joe Bowles and Joe Jackson organized a group called the First Saturday Crew in 2008 while they were in office. Their volunteer initiative focused on cleaning up the Augusta Canal and Aqueduct Park. Over a span of four years, the group removed an estimated 12 tons of trash from the canal area.
According to Bowles, the group never accepted any money from the city.
“We received in-kind donations when we needed a bucket truck once to hoist an engine block out of the aqueducts and we needed a tow vehicle one time when we found a grave marker in the canal bed, but the gloves and trash bags were donated by Ace Hardware and we brought our own chain saws,” Bowles said.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
