Bills add up as water keeps leaking

Can you believe that when it rains, people float rubber duckies in the lobby of the Law Enforcement Center on Walton Way?

And worse yet, marshals operating the X-ray scanners have to stand on wooden boxes and rubber mats to avoid possible electrocution?

The city has already spent $373,489 for studies and a new roof that insiders say is not up to specifications, with an additional $392,075 bill for remediation, insulation and investigation left to be paid.

The reason the building leaks so badly around windows and in the walls is that the metal studs aren't strong enough to keep the framing from deflecting when the wind blows, causing the outside walls to crack and seals to break.

Now a team of specialized engineers from Heery International, the program manager for the city's capital improvements program, is investigating. The engineers are comparing what it will cost to bring the building up to standard with building a new one.

SHOW ME THE MONEY: Augusta Commissioner Willie Mays pitched a fit at the first special purpose local option sales tax meeting last week when he was told a special meeting would be called on the airport bond issue. He said the bond folks should have planned to come to Tuesday's regular commission meeting to get the vote they needed to complete the deal.

And he was not satisfied by City Attorney Stephen Shepard's explanation that the bonds needed to be on the market until Thursday to improve the marketability and bring in more money.

Mr. Mays and others are still fuming about the legal and underwriter fees from the $160 million utility bonds, particularly the $12.42 million paid to lock in the interest rate.

Mr. Mays said he didn't see any savings from that issue even after delays for this and that.

"We still ended up paying the most money we ever paid in 200-and-something years, the highest percentage, the highest interest," he said.

Mr. Shepard tried to assure Mr. Mays, to no avail, that the special meeting was not for the convenience of the out-of-town bond officials.

Mr. Mays then launched into the bond lock-in.

"At first it was the weather," he said. "Then it was something else. Then all of the sudden ... we end up still paying $12 million. Like Cuba Gooding Jr. said, 'Show me the money.'

"It ain't no argument about one day, but I heard that same argument before. What I found out in reality was it wasn't going to change. We were going to get charged the same amount of money whether we met on Sunday before church or Saturday before the nightclub. "

In response to Mayor Pro Tem Marion William's question about whether the bond folks would show them the savings before they voted at the meeting, Mr. Shepard said, "In view of the comments everybody made here today, you better believe they will."

ME 4 U: Who, besides your immediate family members, would you send a valentine to this year? That was the question City Ink posed to various folks last week.

Kent Spruill, a member of the Richmond County Human Relations Commission, said he would send one to his parents, Helen and Ervin Spruill, of Augusta, who support him "100 percent" in everything he does.

Evidently, to Kent Spruill, his momma and daddy aren't immediate family.

Steven Kendrick, the president of Augusta Blueprint, said: "My mother, Mildred. She helps me with my kids. She still cooks for me. I have a new wife, and so we're still learning how to cook things together."

Seems that mommas are so dear, they transcend any rules set by City Ink.

Mayor Bob Young said he would send a valentine to everybody involved in public service because they and their families serve with a great deal of personal sacrifice. His wife, Gwen, would send one to Robert Fain, the priest who married them April 16, 1989.

Commissioner Barbara Sims would send one to a U.S. soldier she does not know.

"I would want to send a valentine to say how much I appreciate his fighting for my freedom and all of us, so we don't have to fight on our own land," she said.

Richmond County Juvenile Court Judge Doug Flanagan would send a valentine to the Child Protective Unit of the Department of Family and Children Services, "for all the good work they do protecting children and investigating cases."

Richmond County Deputy Chris Kennedy, who works in domestic courts, said he'd send one to Judge Sheryl Jolly for being such a good judge and to welcome her aboard the Augusta Judicial Circuit.

Tim Moses, an Augusta lawyer and Board of Elections member, and Commissioner Tommy Boyles both chose Condoleezza Rice.

Groundskeeper Kenneth Settles, the city's 2004 Employee of The Year, couldn't think of anybody in particular.

"Happy Valentine's to everybody," he said.

BARKRUPT: At the checkout line at PetsMart the clerks always ask, "What kind of dogs do you have?'

"Every kind there is," is the truthful answer. With so many American classics of "part-something" ancestry, odds are, every breed is represented.

The only purebred one is Molly the Border Collie. The way to describe her is to relate a story from a sports reporter who was in Scotland for a golf tournament. While interviewing one of the Scottish caddies, the reporter was asked, "Do you speak the Gaelic?"

"No," the reporter answered, "but I understand it.

"Ach mon!" the caddy responded, eyeing the reporter with shock and pity. "Me dog understands it."

Molly would, too. She certainly understands English, along with Bologanese, German Snausage and Italian Puperoni.

It all started with an assignment to write a story about alleged abuses at the old Richmond County pound. There I met Andy, the only dog to be taken to a pet store for an adopt-a-thon that day who didn't get adopted. How sad is that?

And then there was his beautiful sister, Millie, across the way in the pen with other females, smiling and begging for a home.

I had to quit going to the pound, but people keep dropping strays off on our road and somehow they always make their way to our back door. Little Lucky, also known as Moses, was soaking wet and howling under the bushes. I bathed him in warm water in the bathroom sink. Now he's so broad, he won't fit into a No. 2 washtub.

Others followed, the latest being Joe. We tried to find him a home. We advertised in newspapers, called the local radio station, put up flyers. Nobody wanted a big black and orange striped half-wild dog with a Teddy bear head even if he is a sweet as he can be.

Elaine van der Linden, the founder of Molly's Militia, helped us find homes for a few. One was a darling black and white terrier who came to my attention on upper Broad Street. The folks who had moved off and abandoned him had named him "Nobody." Ms. van der Linden renamed him "Manny." Isn't that great?

But even Ms. Van der Linden would have trouble finding Joe a home. Every morning, he has to have some medication he does not want divulged because he says it's nobody's business.

Andy and Millie, who both had operations on the ligaments in their hind legs, have to have arthritis medicine, and hyperactive Biff has to have his doggie Prozac, which he refuses unless it is embedded in a weenie. One kind of nerve pill didn't work on him, so we had to try another. Dr. Hollie Reese at McDuffie Animal Hospital handed me a bottle of pills and said, "Try this, and if it doesn't work, you can bring it back."

She laughed when I told her not to worry, that if it didn't work on him I'd take it myself.

Life is funny. When I was a little girl, people would ask, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

The answer would always be, "I want to run an orphans home for stray animals."

And that just goes to show you should always be careful what you ask for.

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylvia.cooper@augustachronicle.com.