County acts on Rosenwald project bids
Two bids were offered on the restoration of historic Rosenwald School on Isaac Chapel Road at the June 7 meeting of the Marshall County Board of Supervisors.
Mills and Mills Architects have the project for the design.
Roberts Builders offered a base bid of $425,000 and $25,000 on Alternate # 1. Hooker Construction came in with a base bid of $663,000 and $56,800 for Alternate # 1.
Supervisors said there is $268,000 in a grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and a $100,000 allocation from the Legislature available for the project.
District 1 supervisor Charles Terry made a motion to accept the bid of Roberts Builders, pending verification of the numbers and availability of funds. The motion passed.
County engineer Larry Britt discussed completion of Del Stover Road to tie in to Highway 72. The project is part of Project Zeus, or Amazon, and requires working with the Mississippi Department of Transportation to obtain rights-of-way.
The board also signed a stormwater permit to be approved by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, MDEQ, relating to Storm Water Pollution Prevention. The board approved that document as well.
Supervisors discussed a project to straighten a segment of Watson Road and an agreement with DeSoto County splitting the cost up to $50,000. The road leads to a subdivision across the county line in DeSoto County.
Britt said the county did not agree to all of the agreement and did not intend to design the road or pay for cost of rights-of-way and easements. The county already owns the road, he said.
Terry said the county only agreed to help with some costs that were to be shared equally between the two counties.
“We didn’t agree to anything except paying up to $50,000 on the cost of the road (50 percent),” Britt said.
“Let DeSoto County pay for all of it,” said District 5 supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett. “We are not getting any tax money off of it (the subdivision).”
Another urgent matter Britt said was the repair of the Tippah River Bridge on Bethlehem Road. The deadline for telling the Mississippi Department of Transportation if the county will spend Emergency Road and Bridge funds is July 1, he said. Otherwise, the $3.2 million allotted to the project will have to be turned back in to State Aid.
But a project leader with the state said the county could use about $800,000 out of the Local System Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program (LSBP).
Another $500,000 could be added from a discretionary fund. And another $300,000 could come from use tax money.
In other words, in order to keep the money in hand and get the project completed, a mix of funds from several sources could be cobbled together to do the bridge repair.
Supervisor George Zinn III
asked if there are any other bridges the money could be used for that wouldn’t cost as much.
Britt said a bridge on Concord Road would be next in line.
County administrator Larry Hall said a bridge going south on Taska Road needs repair.
Zinn said Blackwater Road has bridges made of box car floors laid across a creek, and there is another on McAuley Road.
Hall said these bridges are similar to the Tippah River Bridge where silt has filled in the creek below the bridge.
Bennett then made a motion to accept Britt’s plan for the Tippah River Bridge but his motion failed for lack of a second.
Supervisors later settled on Britt’s plan for the Tippah River Bridge repair after a long-winded executive session.
In tax office business, assessor Juanita Dillard asked for a month extension of the deadline to complete the real and personal tax roll, saying the office cannot be finished by July 5 deadline. She also requested an extension of the four-year real property appraisal.
Dillard said four employees had 14-day absences for quarantine because of COVID.
Chancery clerk Chuck Thomas suggested that the board wait until closer to the deadline to consider Dillard’s request for an extension. The board passed a motion to the effect.