Members of the Public Services Committee were expecting to hear a presentation from Augusta Parks and Recreation Director Maurice McDowell on May 31 asking for the $1 million allocated through federal American Recovery Plan funding be released for renovations and improvements at Riverwalk and Diamond Lakes Park.
Some committee members seemed stunned when McDowell veered off script and asked that the money be diverted to the Julian Smith Barbecue Pit at Lake Olmstead and the Augusta Farmers Market instead, leaving no money for Riverwalk.
“It was a bait and switch, and we shot that down,” said District 10 Commissioner John Clarke.
MORE: Eroding canal bank pose threat to school building
Prefiled documents prior to the meeting stated that McDowell’s department had studied and concluded that Riverwalk had become even more popular with the public as they socially distanced during the pandemic and claimed the $700,000 originally requested from ARP funds would be used to fix the water fountains, enhance shade areas and add comfort stations.
Instead, McDowell asked that the money earmarked by the Augusta Commission for Riverwalk be diverted to the barbecue pit to make the comfort stations at the facility Americans with Disabilities Act compliant and expand the seating area of the building on Milledge Road near the Julian Smith Casino.
McDowell’s price tag for the barbecue pit amounted to $515,000.
McDowell also asked that $330,000 be diverted from Riverwalk to the Augusta Farmers Market without offering any information as to why the market needed the money or how it might be connected to ARP funding.
The original request of $150,000 to expand the tennis program at Diamond Lakes remained in McDowell’s presentation. Currently, taxpayers are having to fund a new plumbing system at Diamond Lakes due to earlier shoddy construction, and patrons are currently being forced to use portable restrooms and will likely continue to have to use them for the foreseeable future.
Commissioners were clearly not amused, with several asking McDowell why he thought that the sporadically used barbecue pit should take precedence over the city’s main public attraction along the river. District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett attempted to tactfully allow McDowell to withdraw his request.
“I urge our director to take a step back and say, ‘Is the best way to use those funds right now and deploy them in a way that will touch a lot more people than these facilities that you have to rent out anyway,’” Garrett said.
Instead of taking the cue and withdrawing his proposal, McDowell doubled down and claimed the barbecue was a project that was years overdue and that money from SPLOST 8 could be used for repairs on Riverwalk in the future. Only, there is no allocation for Riverwalk that was approved by the commission according to the final SPLOST 8 list that was made public in March 2020.
Discussion then turned to the decaying Boathouse property at the Augusta Marina, which is currently unavailable for public use due to an unstable wraparound deck and other structural issues. McDowell stated that the costs to repair and make the structure habitable again are staggering.
“The original budget that was $900,000. We project that to be $1.3 million now and currently SPLOST 7 has about $500,800, so we are about $800,000 short,” McDowell explained.
MORE: Higher tax assessments result of increase in property values
Again, McDowell said that ARP funds might be used to fill the gap, but was rebuffed by District 1 Commissioner Jordan Johnson.
“I think that we should really slow down on this one; I don’t think that the Boathouse is not viable to invest in, which it is, but we should also understand that ARP is not this fund that is going to solve all of our problems,” Johnson said.
The long postponed renovations to the Henry Brigham Community Center was the next topic, and McDowell attempted to pass the hot potato of why no movement had been made after three years on the procurement process, stating that that the commission approved $6.5 million for the project, but the original low bid was $7.4 million and that when the Parks and Rec Department sent out a separate bid, the lowest price was $8.3 million.
McDowell never explained why his department waited to submit the bids to the Procurement Department, but conceded that if the bid for the work has to be resubmitted due to a procurement expiration date, the bids may rise another $1.6 million.
“One point six million dollars?” District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom asked.
“Yes, that’s correct,” McDowell responded.
The Public Services Committee tasked McDowell, who recently took commissioners on a bus tour of parks he would like to close, including Pendleton King and Hickman Parks, to come back before the full body on June 7 with a priority list before a vote is held to give the Parks and Rec Department any more money from federal relief funds.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
