Engineers are finalizing some numbers needed by consultants for Columbia’s annexation study.
City Engineer Sean Burns told the Board of Aldermen Tuesday that they’re looking into each of the six different geographic regions being considered to be taken into the city limits.
“The biggest area is in the northern part. It’s so broad, and there is a lot to go into it,” he said. “We’re trying to get some conservative numbers to give to Slaughter and Associates so that they will have good information to bring their estimates together on all of this.”
Burns and fellow engineer Jeff Dungan will present the numbers to aldermen before delivering them to Slaughter, an Oxford-based city planning firm. Slaughter will eventually present Phase 2 of its study that will detail estimated expenses and revenues associated with annexation. The board could possibly cut out areas that were under consideration in Phase 1.
Also Tuesday, Burns discussed plans to move the city’s rubbish pit from the current Airport Road site to make way for the Columbia-Marion County Airport runway expansion. The city of Columbia and Marion County Board of Supervisors will host a meeting at 10 a.m. Nov. 13 to discuss the solid waste management plan.
“The county has a solid waste plan; of course, the city’s operations are a part of that,” Burns said. “The change that we’re proposing to do, closing the rubbish pit and then moving the processing facility out to the landfill, will need to be addressed in this.”
Burns said the neighboring counties and owners of property that are around the landfill property have been notified about the hearing. He also encouraged aldermen to attend.
Burns also said he would be informing city officials of three to four sites that could become eligible for NRCS grants for projects similar to one recently completed to help erosion problems near Duckworth Park.
