About that Gervais Street bridge billboard... Don’t say goodbye just yet
A year ago, Howard Duvall was ready to take his own power saw and cut down the billboard standing beside the Gervais Street crossing the Congaree River.
“It’s just a blight on a scenic river,” the Columbia city councilman said at the time.
The billboard, owned by Lamar Advertising, sits on an island owned by the city, just at the gateway to downtown’s Vista. The city was making plans to have it taken down by this March, when the billboard’s year-to-year lease with the city runs out.
But those plans are now delayed – at least until repair work begins on the nearby Columbia Canal, which was badly damaged in the flood of 2015.
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“It really is as simple as the limited access” to get removal equipment to the billboard, assistant city manager Missy Gentry said.
The breach in the canal cut off the normal path that would be used to drive equipment to the billboard, she said.
It’s been a challenge for Lamar to service the sign since the canal breach, much less bring in hefty removal equipment, said Scott Shockley, the company’s territory manager for the Columbia area.
Now, the city is in the “final stages” of conversations with federal regulators and disaster recovery experts about what repairs are required on the canal and how they will be funded, Gentry said. There will then be a period of designing and permitting the repair work before finally moving on to construction – and revisiting the billboard issue.
So, how long are we talking until that happens?
Probably in the range of years, not months, Gentry said.
Once the city knows the final design of the canal work, it will have a better idea of whether the billboard removal can be accommodated before or after the canal is completed, Gentry said.
Even then, it’s not a sure bet the billboard will come down.
“The city will revisit the discussion at the time access is more readily available, and we’ll see where that discussion takes us,” Gentry said. She added, “I think there’s a lot of mixed opinions” about whether the billboard should stay or go.
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The billboard has stood on the island at least since the 1940s. The land was previously owned by SCANA Corp. and transferred to the city – along with the billboard’s lease – sometime in the early 2000s.
“It’s been part of the landscape in excess of 70 years,” Shockley said. “It’s a valuable part of the landscape. ... It’s clearly demonstrated a lot of value to a lot of businesses over 70-plus years.”
While some people consider it an eyesore, Gentry said, others see it as an icon and a piece of the city’s history.
Duvall, for one, would rather see the billboard gone sooner rather than later. And he’s not thrilled to see its removal on hold now.
“I worry that that’s just the first delay we will have,” Duvall said. “I’m very disappointed. I was looking forward to having the view restored on the Congaree River.”
This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 8:45 AM.