Metro Desk

What I’ve been up to

Adam Beam — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:31:53 +0000

City Council members meet at The Big Apple this morning to begin their two day retreat.

Sorry I haven’t been blogging lately. Lots of news to write for the paper this week, plus a two-day City Council retreat, means I don’t have much time to blog. Here’s what’s appeared in the paper from me this week:

That is a solid two days worth of work. Tomorrow, I’ll have a story about how the city is thinking of balancing its budget by outsourcing some city services, including residential garbage pickup.

Comparing the police and sheriff’s departments

Adam Beam — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:42:02 +0000

Check out this comparison of the Columbia Police Department to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. It ran with Noelle Phillip’s Sunday story about the culture of the two departments:

NOTE: The crime rate is per 10,000 residents.

District 3 public meeting on sheriff/police contract

Adam Beam — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:10:32 +0000

District 3 residents listen as Councilwoman Belinda Gergel welcomes them to the District 3 public meeting.

Wednesday night, District 3 Councilwoman Belinda Gergel held a public meeting about the proposed sheriff/police contract. A good crowd showed up at the Capital Senior Center, but I didn’t get a head count. Mayor Steve Benjamin and Richland 1 school board member Susie Dibble were there, along with Seth Rose, the Democratic nominee for the Richland County Council District 5 seat.

Most of the people who attended the meeting supported the contract, as opposed to the meetings in districts 1 and 4 where the overwhelming majority opposed the contract. Here is a sampling of the comments:

“Leon Lott has shown a lot of moral character. I think we need that at the top. That’s been lacking, and has filtered down to the rest of the department.”

“Somebody is going to be losing their job. Sheriff Lott will be bringing in his own team.”

“I do feel like the Columbia Police Department has a lot we could learn from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. I hear people say we have great officers in the City of Columbia. I don’t dispute that. I also hear we don’t have enough money. It seems the sheriff is doing more with less.”

“I wonder how Leon Lott will use part of his time to do a job for us without deteriorating the job he’s already doing. … It’s possible he could resign the job he has and we hire him to be the man for the City of Columbia.”

The next meeting is in District 2, scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Cecil Tillis Center, 2111 Simpkins Lane. City Council will hold a citywide public hearing Wednesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1737 Main Street.

I plan on writing a story for Tuesday’s newspaper recapping the public meetings so far and will include some comments from council members. They have given themselves until the end of September to decide.

Columbia’s ‘Southern Fried Fuel’ initiative

Adam Beam — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:29:26 +0000

The city is holding a news conference Monday to announce its “Southern Fried Fuel” environmental initiative. City officials are asking folks to donate their cooking oil, which will be converted to biofuel and be used to power one of the city’s garbage trucks.

I’ll be writing about it next week, but I wanted to let you know about it for now. You can read the news release below:

City of Columbia to Announce “Southern Fried Fuel” Environmental Initiative

The City of Columbia will hold a press conference on Monday, August 30, 2010 at 10am to announce a new environmental initiative, Southern Fried Fuel: From Frying Oil to Trash Truck Fuel. The press conference will serve as the official kickoff of the City’s new used cooking oil recycling program. Citizens will be encouraged to drop off their used cooking oil at the City’s Public Works Department. City of Columbia Green Business member, Midlands Biofuels, will then collect the cooking oil weekly and convert it into biofuel, which will be used to power one of the City’s garbage trucks. The press conference will be held at the City of Columbia Public Works Facility, located at 2910 Colonial Drive.

Members of Columbia City Council, City staff and CPAC members, along with representatives from Midlands Biofuels, SCDHEC and Palmetto State Clean Fuel Coalition will be present to give remarks. Also during the press conference, there will be a demonstration of the proper use of the cooking oil collection tank. Details on the collection process will also be provided.

What I’ve been working on

Adam Beam — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:59:13 +0000

Sorry I’ve been quiet this week. I’ve been working on a story about the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I’ve been talking with lots of people, and I just started writing the story this afternoon. It’s scheduled to run Saturday.

I know you will be saturated with anniversary stories this weekend. But it’s good to remember the role Columbia had in helping the evacuees. Below are some of our stories to help you remember:

Aug. 30, 2005

Aug. 31, 2005:

Sept. 1, 2005

Sept. 8, 2005

Sept. 9, 2005

Last night’s public meetings on the sheriff/police contract

Adam Beam — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:50:18 +0000

Folks take their seats as the District 4 public meeting was about to begin.

There were two of them. One in District 4, the other in District 1.

The District 4 meeting started at 6 p.m. at Woodland Park. About 85 people showed up to tell Councilwoman Leona Plaugh what they thought about the proposed contract. I listened to 10 people talk. Eight were opposed to it, and two were for it.

A sampling:

“City Council has interfered with our police department. We don’t have a good opportunity to see what our police can do.”

“I think it sounds like a recipe for confusion and mismanagement. A better merger would be (with the city and county’s) planning and zoning departments.”

“Lott can appreciate what police officers go through on a daily basis. He is interested in law enforcement and doing those things that make our community safe. We’ve had five chiefs in four years. It doesn’t get any better than Leon Lott.”

The District 1 meeting was at the Eau Claire Print Building. It started at 6:30, and I arrived at 7 p.m. About 115 people showed up. One big difference from the District 4 meeting were the number of public officials in attendance. I spotted:

I don’t think a single person attended the District 1 meeting who supported the contract. The best line of the night came from Mary Myers, the vocal president of the Gable Oaks Neighborhood Association. She was speaking to the City Council members in attendance:

“Look at yourselves. Do you feel slapped in the face if someone offered Richland County Council to take your spot?”

That got the crowd going. Rutherford concluded his remarks by asking everyone in attendance who was opposed to the contract to raise their hand. Every hand went up.

Three more meetings are scheduled. They are:

Tonight at 5:30: District 3 public meeting, Capital Senior Center, 1650 Park Circle.
Tuesday at 6 p.m.: District 2 public meeting, Cecil Tillis Center, 2111 Simpkins Lane.
Sept. 1 at 6 p.m.: Public hearing, City Hall, 1737 Main Street

Palmetto Trees coming to Devine Street

Adam Beam — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:08:16 +0000

Click to enlarge

Columbia officials plan to install 13 Palmetto Trees along Devine Street in Five Points to replace the existing Ginkgo trees that have not grown well amid the concrete and asphalt.

The Ginkgo trees have been in the ground three years and, in the words of the city’s Forestry and Beautification Superintendent Sara Hollar, “they are really sad trees.”

The Palmetto trees won’t provide as much shade, but they will not block the sidewalk as much for pedestrians, Hollar said.

The Five Points Association will pay for the trees, Hollar said.

Gameday is almost here

Adam Beam — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:02:34 +0000

Are you ready?

I’m not asking if you are ready sports-wise. There are other blogs for that. I’m talking about traffic. The season opener is Sept. 2. Here are the traffic maps:

Columbia’s rankings

Adam Beam — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:08:47 +0000

I had lunch today with the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports and Tourism. They provided a list of all the lists Columbia has made it on. Here they are:

14th Strongest Metro (Business Week)
8th in America’s cheapest homeownership market (Bloomberg Business Week)
Best Tasting Tap Water in S.C. (S.C. Environmental Conference)
Top 10 underrated cities (hotels.com
2nd America’s most livable communities (Partners for livable communities)
One of America’s manliest cities (Combo’s Snacks)
6th Business Climate (Site Selection Magazine)
1st in parks and recreation opportunities (Earth Day Network)
7th metro area for European expansion (Expansion Management)
Among best sports cities (Sporting News)
21st America’s 50 hottest cities (Expansion Management)
Top 20 city on America’s Best Bang for your buck list (Forbes)
Top 10 most livable bargain markets (MSN Real Estate)
Top Midsized College Town in the U.S. (Epodunk, The Power Place)

State Fair left out of hospitality tax funding

Adam Beam — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:01:31 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts. Here are my excuses:

I was at City Hall for eight hours Wednesday.
I was running around Thursday writing about the flooding in Five Points.

Now, back to work.

Wednesday, Columbia City Council members approved a plan to give $2.5 million in hospitality tax funding to local arts and tourism groups. (Hospitality taxes are the 2 cents on the dollar you pay every time you eat in a Columbia restaurant.)

The goal of giving out hospitality tax money, according to the Hospitality Tax Committee, is to bring more hospitality taxes to the city. In other words, the money needs to go toward events that bring people to the city who spend money in local restaurants.

The South Carolina State Fair brings a lot of people to Columbia. The fair attracted 409,541 people last year, and 425,804 in 2008. It’s safe to say that most of those people buy deep fried Pepsi and funnel cakes, which according to the city is prepared food and includes the hospitality tax.

The State Fair asked for $195,000. They got nothing. The reason, according to Hospitality Tax Committee chairman Richard Burts, is because the fair does not replenish the hospitality tax fund.

Here’s his reasoning: While everyone is eating at the fair, they aren’t eating at local restaurants, which means there is no net gain to the hospitality tax fund.

City Council had some spirited discussion about this Wednesday. What do you think?