County builds 'expensive' fence to match one built on property of supervisor's brother - The Commercial Dispatch

Before it was torn apart by last year's tornado that ripped through Columbus, a fence stood between Lowndes County Administrative Building on Main Street and the house to its west.

The old fence, covered in weeds and vines and hardly visible, was dubbed "the jungle" by County Administrator Ralph Billingsley.

In its place now is a 295-foot long, eight-foot tall decorative wood fence with six-by-six-inch posts and copper caps and trims. The county built it to match the aesthetics of a fence on the property of David Sanders, brother to Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders.

The price tag? $14,160.

As required by Columbus city code, the county needed to build a fence that shielded its parking lot for 20 or more cars from adjacent residential properties to its west. The code requires at least a six-foot tall fence, according to Columbus Building Official Kenneth Wiegel, but does not require certain building materials, meaning it is not mandatory to match fencing materials already on the private property.

David Sanders, who owns a residence two lots west of the county administrative building, is now also owner of the residential property next door abutting the administrative building. His fence suffered damage during the tornado as well, he said, which prompted him to "ride around town" in search of a new one he liked. 

And when David Sanders learned of the city code requirement, he approached Billingsley with the idea of building matching fences. Ultimately, David Sanders had two sides of the fence built, and the county built the third.

"I told him what kind of fence I wanted to build ... and I told him I didn't think it made sense for it to be incompatible," David Sanders said. "I gave him the specifications for my fence that I was going to build, and he took those specifications and got the bid."

Based on David Sanders' design suggestions, Billingsley said he solicited quotes from two contractors, the lower one given by Columbus Fence Company, the same contractor who constructed the fencing on Sanders' property. County officials, with board of supervisors approval, decided to apply the same design along the entire western border of the county building, which shields it from both David Sanders' and his neighbors' houses.

Billingsley said he thought it would only "make sense" to match David Sanders' design. 

"We tied it in for him because it was just natural to tie it in with what he was doing," Billingsley said. "It would be crazy to not have something tied in from an aesthetic standpoint.

"It has nothing to do with what David wants or doesn't want, it's what we wanted," he added. "He's got this nice beautiful fence there, and ... we are Lowndes County government and we put up a piece of junk that looks like crap? Why would we choose that?"

Harry Sanders abstained from the vote to build the fence but said he supports the move. He acknowledges, though, it is a more expensive fence than the county might have built otherwise.

"There's no reason in the world why we would put a fence that is different than the one that we would be joining," Harry Sanders said. "It might have cost the county maybe $1,500 more than it would normally have cost to match with his fence, because he pretty much had an expensive fence. And if we wanted to put a cheaper fence, it probably would have saved the county $1,500, but it would not look anywhere near as good as the fence does now."

But the savings could have been bigger than that, according to multiple contractors The Dispatch interviewed. 

A basic pine wood fence that stretches 300 feet long and eight feet tall with four-by-four-inch posts would cost roughly $1,800 for materials, said a sales assistant who works at the Home Depot in Tupelo. The price of a wood fence may vary drastically, depending on the cost of materials and labor, they said. However, the $14,160 fence the county put in place would be considered expensive among all types of fencing materials in stock there, the source said.

Owners of two independent fencing businesses serving Columbus, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Dispatch that the five-figure price tag of the county fence, which averages at $48 per linear foot, seemed high and was only a reasonable price for high-end fences. The normal price range for fencing, in comparison, sits at $10 to $12 per linear foot, one of them told The Dispatch.

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County builds 'expensive' fence to match one built on property of supervisor's brother - The Commercial Dispatch
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