Inquirer: Business owners want city to pave industrial park road

Randy Prather owns a building and a remodeling company in Columbus and pays all the taxes that businesses have to pay the city. The same can be said about the other six small businesses that call Merry Acres Industrial Park home.

So you can understand their irritation that Belinda Drive, the main (and only) drag in the park, is in Third World condition and the city will do little about it.

I'll let Prather tell you the gist of their situation: "We are a local small business located at 1364 Belinda drive, Merry Acres Industrial Park in Columbus. The road that our business is located on is horrible and in desperate need of repairs so that everyone can access their businesses.

"We are trying our best to get help from the city but all they can say is that Belinda Drive is not a city street. What we are being told is that when you buy a building here that you own the portion of road in front of that building."

In the city's defense, it's not city property, and the city doesn't have the money to be in the business of repairing private property. In fact, the city would probably have to get authorization from Columbus Council in order to do so. (More on that in a minute depending on how fast you read.)

Prather also makes the point that some of the money the city does have comes from the business owners, and they don't think they're getting their money's worth.

I spoke to Prather on Friday and things had changed since he emailed me earlier. The city softened its stance somewhat and told him that the city would pay half the repaving costs if the business owners would pay the other half. The city said it would prorate the amount and add it to their property tax bills spread over the next 10 years, Prather said.

He said the city hasn't given him an estimate on what it might cost to repave the road, but I can tell you it won't be cheap.

The road looks like Baghdad after a bombing. It's so bad that Prather said he spent about $1,000 recently to put crushed rock in some of the larger potholes because they were causing damage to cars.

"It is really getting costly knocking the balance out of our tires, front end alignments and I had a customer who bent a rim. I had to pay to replace the rim on a Lexus," Prather said. "I have all my samples here, you know all my tiles, granite and marble. I usually have my customers come here and pick everything out, but now I have to load all my samples up and go to their house because nobody wants to come out here."

He said Councilor Pops Barnes met with the business owners last week and advised them to bring their situation to a council meeting and see what they could get accomplished.

"Pops has been a big help to us. He is the one who told me to go in front of city council," Prather said. "He said if I could get six of the city council members to vote for it, the city would have to pay for it."

I'll tell the guy who covers Columbus Council to keep his eye out for Prather at the Oct. 28 meeting.

Stay tuned.

This story was originally published September 28, 2014 at 10:52 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Business owners want city to pave industrial park road."