Columbia City Council – October 7, 2014

By Temple Ligon

Council met last Tuesday, October 7, on two occasions. Its work session ran from roughly 2:00 p.m. until a little before 6:00 p.m., and then there was a regularly scheduled council meeting following.

Comet

Among the issues early on the agenda, the update on the city’s bus system was presented by Comet’s CEO, Dr. Robert A. Schneider. He reported the annual ridership was approaching two million, which was a considerable gain over the system’s recent past plagued with reduced routes and grossly inadequate funding. Back in the Dark Ages in 1982 when SCANA (then SCE&G) was meeting its contract with the city to run an electric power monopoly while it also operated the bus system, the ridership was about five million people, according to the company’s annual reports to its stockholders. That was five million passengers in a time when the operator really didn’t want to operate the bus system and it showed. Still, five million passengers then was a whole lot more than the almost two million now. Point being, with a little effort, a return to five million shouldn’t be all that hard. And with that many passengers more routes and more frequency of service stops should be in the works.

Schneider showed his new routes, to include Orbit, a common rectangular route running along Richland, Sumter, College and Assembly Streets. Another good idea was the connection with the airport, but the route doesn’t really connect with the passenger terminal. It runs to the front doors at Midlands Tech, but that’s as close as the airline passengers get to the terminal. Charlotte has two bus routes serving the terminal curb at its airport, one from Archdale Drive and another from Northlake Mall, each making the connection in about 25 minutes.

Schneider said no one route should make its passengers wait more than 40 minutes for a bus, which is far better than the previous one-hour waits typical in Columbia’s bus system.

Roy Lynch Park

The park is next to Logan Elementary, which puts it in the position to serve as Logan’s recess park since it doesn’t have much of its own. The Transitions homeless hub is nearby, and the integration of little kids and the Transitions crowd set up a perceived threat to the children’s safety. The Columbia Junior League in the voice of its member Pamela Adams told council it could offer $100,000 in funds to help with the renewal and the safety upgrades at Roy Lynch Park, an ambitious project costing in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dollars, all told.

Main Street

The city’s Office of Business Opportunities presented its Main Street Capital Program, where about $200,000 has been allocated for a loan program to upgrade shop fronts on Main Street. The goal is to encourage a healthy mix of retail businesses, and applicants are eligible for loans up to $50,000, paid off at an interest rate of prime plus one. But there is a loan forgiveness component to the deal. Starting with a 10-year amortization period, if after 5 years all the requirements have been met, the balance of the loan will be forgiven. Whatever the cost of construction, at least 50% has to come from the borrower.

Location matters. Bonus evaluation points will be given to applicants located in the 1300, 1400, 1500 and 1600 blocks of Main Street, according to the handout distributed by the city’s Office of Business Opportunities.