“For there is hope for a tree, When it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And its shoots will not fail. Though its roots grow old in the ground And its stump dies in the dry soil, At the scent of water it will flourish And put forth sprigs like a plant.” Job 14:7-9
We have seen many trees cut down this past year in Augusta – Richmond County at the hands of our current government in the name of progress.
If you can call “progress” the decades overdue TIA projects that have currently turned our thoroughfares downtown into an embarrassing and traffic snarled mess.
Decades of deferred maintenance to infrastructure (exacerbated by the shocking incompetence and lack of action by the last administration) creates quality of life issues that seem nearly unsolvable in Augusta.
But, yet – I still have hope.
I am not giving up, but I, and many other taxpayers, are fed up.
We hear about the much touted 901 one potholes that were plugged by the City in 2023, but when was the last time anyone saw a block of fresh pavement or new working streetlights in Augusta?
I am dumbfounded at Commissioner Jordan Johnson’s suggestion that commissioners take a tour of blighted areas around Augusta. Aren’t these their districts? Don’t they live in their districts and drive by the blighted buildings every day?
Oh, and they have 60 days to take this tour and report back. Maybe they’ll even stop at Twin Peaks for lunch, since the city credit cards seem to get a swipe there quite often?!
The commission plans lah-di-dah workshops, tours, elaborate presentations, out of town conferences and studies of other cities in other parts of the country.
Instead they need to be taking some action to stop rampant crime. A New Year’s Eve party at the once new and shiny Millhouse Station apartment building downtown left three people shot, when a nonresident party-goer brandished a rifle in the building clubhouse room and started shooting.
The commission should be taking absentee landlords to task for leaving buildings to crumble and become holdups for squatters and junkies. They should come down hard on slumlords who have been sitting on Broad, Greene and Telfair Street properties for decades, letting them decay until there’s no other option than the bulldozer, and one after another once beautiful historic buildings becomes vacant lots.
The push to keep the administrator hiring process is just more delay and obfuscation to try to maintain the (worsening!) status quo.
In any case, Douse and her endless convoluted excuses and, “Let me remind you,” kindergarten-teacher tone speaking down to voters has to go, along with many of the commissioners who do nothing but bicker and embarrass themselves and the citizens they are supposed to represent in public meetings where they are elected to do the people’s business.
Still I have hope – if only we get out and VOTE for change, maybe – just maybe we have a chance to see Augusta flourish and put forth new growth.
Kevin de l’Aigle
Augusta, Ga.
