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PrintCOLUMBIA – Mayor Darwin Hindman appointed a new committee Thursday to drum up support for the city’s $77 million April sewer bond issue.
Kee W. Groshong, the former vice chancellor for administrative affairs at MU and former director of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and Mary Anne McCollum, a former Columbia mayor, will lead the volunteer committee of 23 people.
The city will ask voters on April 8 to approve the $77 million issue, which would pay for $67 million in improvements to the city’s wastewater treatment facility and $10 million worth of improvements to the collection system. The updates are driven primarily by Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agency clean water requirements. Both service rates and new sewer connection fees will pay for the projects.
Hindman said the city has formed similar committees to promote bond issues the entire time he has been in office. While the ballot this April is particularly loaded, with the Columbia Public School District asking for a tax levy that would generate $10.3 million per year and the Boone County Regional Sewer District asking voters to approve a $21 million sewer bond issue, Hindman said the city is not approaching this issue any differently than in the past.
“I have long ago learned that whenever I am involved in an election, whether it is for office or an issue, that the proper thing to do is worry,” Hindman said. “You go out and push for it as though it might not succeed.”
Exactly how the group will promote the issue is up to them to decide, Hindman said. They will likely raise money for advertising and make presentations to civic clubs, he said. They have not yet scheduled their first meeting.
Hindman said Groshong has experience dealing with infrastructure issues in his job at MU, while McCollum is “extraordinarily interested in the city betterment.”
The other members are: Scott Atkins, Dave Bennett, Bill Costello, Joe Engeln, Shatenita Horton, Louesa Runge Fine, Bob Hutton, Jim Loveless, Larry Moore, Josh Oxenhandler, Doug Pugh, Tom O’Connor, Dan Rothery, Vicki Russell, Cynthia Schreen, Valerie Shaw, John Shrum, Ron Shy and Mike Vangel.
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