The Town of Columbus has cited water and sewer infrastructure needs and hiring a new manager as its top priorities for the year 2010.
Columbus Town Council held a retreat recently at the Stearns Education building to discuss long-term issues and goals for the year.
The top priority was hiring a new town manager to fit the towns needs after town manager Tim Holloman was fired in December.
The next goal was cited as water and sewer infrastrure needs, such as clearwell status and waterline extensions. The town has applied for a grant to help fund a water line extension down Hwy. 108 to hook up Foster Creek Preserve, a 1,000 acre planned subdivision and Midway Baptist Church.
Other goals set by council on Saturday included creating festival policies, dealing with Foster Creek approvals, creating a comprehensive plan, making fountain repairs at Veterans Park and holding joint meetings with the town and businesses to discuss needs. The town also discussed courthouse sidewalks, storefront facade design criteria, the garbage disposal contract, sign ordinance enforcement, gateway signage, surveillance cameras along Hwy. 108 for the police department, replacing office computer server, cleaning and maintaing ditches and rights of ways, resolving drain on police department for mental health patients, the need for a light meter to enforce the towns lighting ordinance and setting a priority in next years budget to retain employee health insurance benefits due to rising costs.
The town required tall signs to be taken down by the deadline date of the middle of February and said they need to discuss how to handle non-conformity to the new regulations. The town will charge businesses $50 per day for non-conformance.The police department also cited a need for surveillance cameras to help solve crimes and estimated that it will cost $15,000 for five cameras.