S P I R I T J U L Y 3 1 2 0 0 3
Metro Beat
Mays Demands Answers From Kolb
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ugusta Commissioner Willie Mays can practically step outside the front door of his funeral home on James Brown Blvd. and observe the progress of Augusta Neighborhood Improvement Corp.’s new office building currently being constructed at 925 Laney Walker Blvd. And lately, Mays said he hasn’t liked what he’s seen. “I’ll just be real blunt about it,” Mays told the Augusta Commission’s administrative services committee on July 28. “Y’all know how I am, I put it out on the table. “I first got concerned when I saw the project moving and then I suddenly saw the speed of the project slow.” The city of Augusta has a great deal of interest in the development of this office building. In May 2002, the Augusta Commission agreed to move two city departments into the ANIC building – the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Development department and Augusta’s fire department. Originally, ANIC’s office building was scheduled to be completed by the end of September 2002. But due to construction delays, the grand opening for the building was moved back to October of this year. Because the building would not be completed until a full year after the original deadline, ANIC offered to pay, as a penalty, the difference between what the city is having to pay now for office space in the Augusta Riverfront Center for the two city departments and the proposed lease price for the ANIC building. According to city records, that penalty for ANIC would have been approximately $9,000 a month. Many commissioners felt charging ANIC that much money each month would cause extreme hardship on the organization. Therefore, in February the commission waived ANIC’s payment obligation. But by forgiving ANIC’s penalty, the city’s housing department was forced to request an increase of $135,000 to this year’s budget to cover the additional 2003 rent. HND Director Warren Smith asked the commission to provide his department with
T I R E D
By Stacey Eidson
“I told Mr. (Jim) Wall I was disgusted because I had not gotten a response from the administrator of this city. And I refused to go down and ask again for one.” – Augusta Commissioner Willie Mays
enough money to cover the rent until the end of December. And according to a private architect hired by the city to oversee the development of the ANIC building, the project may not be completed until January or February 2004. The administrative services committee voted to take the necessary $135,000 from the city’s urban services fund to pay for the rent. The February 2004 forecast for the completion of the ANIC building is an example of some of the concerns Mays said he’s had about the project for almost two months. “Is there something that is delaying this project?” Mays asked the committee. “And if there is, whose side of the fence is smooth running and whose side of it is in the mud? Is everything from the city side and ANIC’s side in place to proceed?” Smith told Mays that ANIC has assured the city that the building will be completed by October. “ANIC is still saying that the building will be ready for occupancy in October,” Smith said. “That’s what they are very clearly saying to us. They are on schedule and there is no problem.” Augusta Fire Chief Al Gillespie agreed, saying he didn’t understand why Mays felt the
building would not be completed on time. “I don’t know where this is coming from personally,” Gillespie said. Mays questioned why it seemed he was hearing people talk out of two sides of their faces. “Well, if nobody is foot-dragging, then why are we asking for money to be taken out of our urban service district (fund) to cover rent?” Mays asked. “Somebody needs to be giving a better answer than they’re giving.” Mays said he tried to get to the bottom of what he saw as a delay in the project two months ago by sending City Administrator George Kolb a memo regarding his concerns. “I issued a memo through the clerk’s office better than two months ago to Mr. Kolb,” Mays said. “And I never heard from the administrator in reference to it. I need to find out if ANIC is slowing down. If we need to put our foot in their behind, then we need to do it. “Because the word on the street is, it is being drug out. I’m just going to throw it out just like I’m hearing it. It’s being drug on purpose so that it won’t work.” Kolb said that he received Mays’ memo, but that those concerns should have been directed to County Attorney Jim Wall because he was the one handling the city’s contract with
ANIC. Kolb added that Wall sent Mays a letter explaining that ANIC’s attorney was, at the time, still reviewing the lease. “I have not been involved in that process,” Kolb said. As soon as Kolb had finished, Mays said he didn’t know what Kolb was talking about. “I appreciate Mr. Kolb saying that Mr. Wall responded in writing,” Mays said, quickly becoming angry. “If he responded in writing, I didn’t get it. He responded to me in person, because I cornered him after I had not gotten a response from you, Mr. Kolb. “And if you felt it was not your duty to respond to me, a commissioner, as the person who handles the day-to-day activities of this city, then you should have responded back in a memo and said, ‘I will have Mr. Wall to respond to you. It is not my shot to call.’” “But as of this date from two months ago that I asked you what was going on in this situation,” Mays added, “I have not yet, until right now, heard from you.” Kolb insisted that Wall had sent Mays a letter regarding the ANIC building. “If Jim Wall had written me, I wouldn’t have had to bother asking him about it,” Mays said. “And for the record ... I told Mr. Wall I was disgusted because I had not gotten a response from the administrator of this city. And I refused to go down and ask again for one.” Augusta Commissioner Lee Beard asked that Kolb invite ANIC Executive Director Robert Cooks and representatives from the city’s HND and fire departments to the next administrative services committee to get a complete update on the progress of the ANIC building. Mays said he hoped by then that the commission would have more answers about the project. “Now, if we’ve got this many folk in a room right now that don’t know where the hell that project is, then I think pink is the order of the day to a point that we can’t get answers,” Mays said, referring to pink slips. “And if fingers are still being pointed across the table, hell I’ll bring the ax to cut everybody’s hand off with. But I think we need to get an answer.”
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CONTACTS OR GLASSES? Manuel J. Chaknis, M.D., • Board Certified Ophthalmologist 2826-A Hillcreek Drive Augusta, GA 30909
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