COLUMBUS - West Point City Council, as well as leaders from Harris and Troup counties, walked away from a day-long retreat Wednesday with a list of ways the groups could improve communication and work on joint projects.

More specifically, Troup County Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe said he would help facilitate meetings among West Point and Troup and Harris county school officials to locate a high school in the southern end of the county. West Point was the first city in the county to consolidate its school, sending high school students to Troup High School.

Calls for a new school have grown louder in recent years, especially with the anticipated population growth that Kia Motors could bring.

“I understand the need,” Wolfe told West Point council members. “Hogansville went through the same thing when Hogansville High School consolidated with Callaway. It was like a dagger through the heart of the community.”

West Point Mayor Drew Ferguson IV said a school is a “major economic driver” for the community, and West Point has lost potential residents to adjacent Chambers County, Ala., where the schools are in town. Many West Point students also attend Springwood School, a private school, in Lanett, Ala., which is closer than Troup High.

School officials have said they cannot locate a school where the population can’t support it. However, West Point leaders say that population won’t come without a school. A school that could serve West Point youth and those in Harris County has been discussed, but that goes against how school zones are laid out and how states fund them.

“We need to look at the funding issue differently and look at the school as an economic tool,” Ferguson said. “Everyone keeps saying it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tough if we don’t do it.”

The government leaders decided to have quarterly meetings to discuss issues facing the area, something they said had worked in the past before the practice was stopped.

Wolfe also agreed to look at West Point residents the next time positions are open on the Troup County Health Department Board. West Point currently doesn’t have a representative on the board, although state regulations mandate appointments by job and experience, not geography. The health board is set to meet Monday on whether to close the clinics in West Point and Hogansville, something Wolfe told West Point council that he’s fought against.

After spending Wednesday morning meeting with other governments, council spent the afternoon discussing relations among themselves and with department heads, who also made the trip to downtown Columbus for the retreat. It was the first chance the groups ever have had to discuss how they deal with each other.

Council wound up creating a list of informal guidelines to act by when dealing with department heads and employees, with such suggestions as following the chain of command, taking up residents’ - and some employees - issues with the city manager, rather than call department heads directly and get them off track. Gordon Maner, director of local government programs for the Carl Vinson School of Government at University of Georgia, said council members interacting directly with employees is a bad idea.

“Once you give (a city employee) an ear, they will keep coming back to you,” Maner said. “It’s not your job to counsel employees.”

Suggestions for council members themselves included not springing surprises on each other, sharing a long-term vision for the city, doing homework before council meetings and not turning council meetings into a “one-man show,” among other guidelines.

Maner recommended the city leaders occasionally use a work session to review the guidelines they created and discuss where improvements may be made.

Jennifer Shrader can be reached at jshrader@lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.