The Packet
Thursday, April 11, 2002

A View From The Bridge
By Roger Larsen

Last week I mentioned that I'd talked by phone to MDOT Executive Director Butch Brown by phone about our riverwalk project and the chances of shifting the funds to fix up the old river bridge instead. I didn't have time to work up a good report last week. Mr. Brown was mayor of Natchez from 1992 to 2000 and was appointed head of MDOT last May.

I told Mr. Brown that the riverwalk project boosters are saying that if we don't follow through and finish the project we'll never get another grant from MDOT again. He said that is "certainly not the case. Every project stands on its own. If you didn't follow through on this one you would be just as eligible in the future to apply for others as you are for this one."

Mr. Brown went on, "There are no penalties [for withdrawing an application]. These are enhancement projects that we administer through MDOT to communities. I'll be the first one to tell you, as mayor of Natchez we did a lot of enhancement work down there and some we finished, some we didn't; some we followed through on, some we didn't." He added with a laugh, "And MDOT, even back then without me at the helm, were pretty good people."

I said," If we had something we're not solidly sure about, maybe we ought not to push through just because we started."

He said there are a half-dozen MDOT enhancement projects in the works "where we've had to notify them and ask them to let us know their status and move forward." He said ours is not one of them.

I said that since the riverwalk project was initiated we've had a change of administration and that people have started expressing their reservations about matters such as safety and maintenance. I said there might still be a "bare majority" on the city council and board of supervisors that would vote to follow through, but there's no enthusiasm for it. I said that the project most people would rather see undertaken is the stabilization and restoration of our old 1927 Tombigbee bridge. I told Mr. Brown, "But we've been told that even if we're not for [the riverwalk] we've got to go on or we'll never get another grant." I added, "It seems like it would be just the opposite, that if we're not sure about what we're doing you'd want us not to continue."

Mr. Brown said that is "absolutely" the case. He went on, "As a matter of fact, if there's doubt in the community's mind about the project, or if they want to change their mind and go a different way, we'll look at other projects." Every request stands on its own merit - it doesn't matter if you just finished one or just lost one." Speaking personally and not as the director, he said he would be happier knowing we weren't going to go forward with a project we didn't have in our heart.

I asked if we could "shift" the money for the riverwalk to a project to restore the old bridge. Mr. Brown replied that we would have to submit another application and justify the project. He said that when a project "doesn't go forward, then those funds will just be reallocated. But you don't get a jump-start just because you had one and didn't get it. Every project is evaluated."

I said I realized the Mr. Brown could not commit himself to a different project, but asked if "fixing up a 1927 bridge on the National Register" would be a valid project. He asked me what the bridge is being used for now and I said "nothing," that it has been abandoned since the new bridge was finished about eight years ago. I said it carried our industrial traffic to the island and the port until the new bridge was finished.

Mr. Brown replied, "Just let me say this, without saying too much. I sit on the advisory board for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and probably the main reason I'm on that board is because I am an advocate and am fond of historic bridges. And enhancement projects that deal with history obviously have a lot of merit in some people's minds - it may not be my evaluation team's up here but it would be mine, and you know sometimes I get a vote."

Mr. Brown made a suggestion: "If y'all are having second thoughts on your bicycle-pedestrian trail, and you do have a new area of interest and emphasis and it does qualify, then I would suggest that you go ahead and notify our director of that program, Mr. Marlin Collier - he's the director of intermodal planning, but he's a lot more than that, believe me. He's about the best in the country." He said if a change is made, "the quicker the better," because of impending federal cuts. He said he didn't know if the T-21 funds for projects such as ours would be cut too.

Mr. Brown asked some questions about the old bridge, and he said there are some new materials and techniques for sandblasting and repainting old bridges. He seemed very interested in it.

Later I talked with George Irby, our director of federal programs. He said that he and other officials had dealt with another MDOT official on our project and that we had competed with another district to get the funds. He said he was still concerned we might lose future funding if we didn't follow through on this project, but on Tuesday he talked to Mr. Brown himself. Yesterday Mayor Rupp tried to reach Mr. Brown by phone but he was out of town; he'll try again today.

At the CLEDA executive board meeting two weeks ago, David Sanders told the board that a "letter-writing campaign" has been mounted in an effort to derail the riverwalk project. He was apparently referring to letters in the Commercial Dispatch and the Packet by Randy Wilson and Sadie Fant, but I could have missed some others (I don't think I know Mr. Wilson but he writes a good letter). And of course he was probably including me in the effort too. He also said that opponents of the plan are sowing "misinformation" about it.

I don't know of any misinformation the opponents have tried to spread, but Mr. Sanders and the other people boosting this project - none of whom are stepping out publicly - said that dropping the plan would prevent us from ever getting another MDOT grant. They even got Birney Imes III to broadcast this misinformation via his Sunday Dispatch column a couple of weeks ago. But, as my conversation with Butch Brown shows, it's simply not true. If they continue saying it now they are not just in error but are promoting a falsehood.

Now I hear that Main Street Columbus officials (Mr. Sanders is one) have invited members of the city council and the board of supervisors to briefings on the project beginning today and running into next week. Main Street Director Jan Miller is reportedly telling them that the media won't be informed of the meetings till after they're over so that all elected officials will know what to say when asked.