Interstate highway possibility could be putting us on the map ... so to speak

A possible opportunity for addressing a six-decades-old transportation misfortune/mistake was presented Tuesday to Columbus Council — by a 19-year-old college student.

When the Interstate Highway System was planned and designed in the 1950s linking virtually every major and mid-size city in the contiguous 48 states, the decision to bypass Columbus on the network would become a nagging economic and political issue here for years, and in some ways to this day.

Frank Lumpkin IV, a member of a long-prominent Columbus family and a finance/real estate major at the University of Georgia, made the pitch to council this week that the city is perfectly positioned to be on the route of a new interstate … one that is already being built. I-14, which Lumpkin said will run from Meridian, Texas, to Augusta, has been designated by Congress, and a 25-mile western stretch has already been built.

Aside from the obvious logistical and economic advantages, Lumpkin said, is the fact that much of the infrastructure for the part of I-14 that would run through Columbus is already in place, namely the J.R. Allen Parkway/Sam Wellborn Highway section of U.S. 80.

Long after the Interstate system was up and busy, it took years of hard work and dedicated political lobbying by local officials and business leaders to get I-185 built, connecting Columbus and Fort Benning to I-85 at LaGrange. Even if it should happen, the reality of an interstate that really goes through Columbus instead of just making a side trip here will be long in coming.

But it sounds real enough for council to put the idea on the city’s legislative agenda for next year. This is one student who’s obviously been doing his homework.

Opioid suit in Georgia

A recent twist in the fight against the growing opioid addiction crisis is an intriguing one: Georgia’s largest county is taking on the drug companies — in court.

As noted in the Saporta Report online business journal, Fulton County Commission Vice Chairman Bob Ellis announced on Tuesday a lawsuit against at least two dozen pharmaceutical firms and officials. The suit reportedly will not be charged to taxpayers; the law firm hired to handle the suit assumes the risk and will receive a 25 percent recovery fee.

More than 150 overdose deaths were reported in Fulton in 2016, almost half of those among people who were or had formerly been addicted to prescription drugs, according to District Attorney Paul Howard.

There are at least a couple of obvious ways such an approach could backfire. One is that the suit — especially if plaintiffs prevail — becomes another rationale for drug companies to hike already outlandish prescription medication prices. Another is that people with a legitimate medical need for relief of severe, even excruciating pain could lose timely access.

But the toll of casual access is tragic, and too often, Ellis said, “began as a result of an opiate that never should have been prescribed in the first place.”

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Interstate highway possibility could be putting us on the map ... so to speak."