Columbus, Tryon and Saluda officials recently said with their towns’ small sizes it no longer makes sense for each town to have its own large equipment. They also discussed sharing a grant writer, directional signs and bulk purchasing.

The towns met jointly on Tuesday, Oct. 1 and discussed the possibility of sharing equipment and joining together for grants and other contracts to save money.

Saluda Mayor Fred Baisden began discussions and said Saluda is the smallest of the three towns at about 715 residents. He said the city’s infrastructure is crumbling and the towns should look into borrowing each other’s equipment like has been done occasionally in the past.

Columbus Mayor Eric McIntyre said he likes the idea of the towns taking an inventory of their useable goods and seeing if there’s somewhere the towns can order together and get a greater amount for a better price.

He also said if the three towns had separate contractors for items like heating and air conditioning they may could go together with one company and get a better deal.

The towns also discussed the possibility of sharing a grant writer, who could write grants for each town and for joint projects such as a waterline the three towns share that connects Tryon and Saluda’s systems and put a valve on an existing Tryon and Columbus line so all three towns can share water when needed.

McIntyre said the towns could share large equipment like a dump truck.

Tryon Mayor Alan Peoples said the towns could pay a shared grant writer a set amount, then add bonuses depending on the money acquired through grants.

“It’s probably way past us doing something about this,” said Peoples.

Columbus Town Manager Jonathan Kanipe said the towns shared the grant on the waterline with Tryon being the lead agency. He said the towns could share grants and adopt an inter-local agreement to share the resources.

Tryon Town Manager Joey Davis said grant agencies put more weight on a grant that affects multiple jurisdictions so a joint grant would have a better chance of being funded.

“A grant writer for the three towns makes a lot of sense,” said Saluda commissioner Johnnie Kinard.

Saluda commissioner Lynn Cass said it would be to all towns’ advantage to get people from town to town through directional signs.

Saluda Mayor Fred Baisden said the City of Landrum recently installed way-finding signs that don’t look very expensive but are clean and crisp and help people figure out where things are located.

“It would be worthwhile to look at what (Landrum has) and what they spent on (their signs),” said Baisden.

Tryon commissioner George Baker said there’s no reason Tryon couldn’t add to their signs with other signs indicating, “by the way, Saluda is that way; Columbus is that way.”

Baisden also said the towns need to figure out a way to get industry of some kind into the towns. He said he is a member of the county economic and tourism development commission and the towns should work with that board.

“I am really a strong believer we need some strong industry of some kind to provide jobs to young people,” Baisden said.

The town councils mainly discussed hiring a consultant to explore starting a water authority, but were also interested in sharing other resources in order to save money.

The towns directed the managers to discuss possible resources to share. The next joint meeting for further discussions will be scheduled in January 2014.