County opens bids
By SUE WATSON Staff Writer
Bids were opened on several projects involving the Project Poppy site in Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park at the Jan. 6 meeting of the Marshall County Board of Supervisors.
Justin Hall, executive director of the Marshall County Industrial Development Authority, helped open the bids.
A ground storage water tank that will store water that will be treated then pumped up to a 50,000 gallon elevated storage tank at the Project Poppy site received only one bid.
South Eastern Tank, of Lebanon, Tenn., bid $356,366.
The bid came in under engineers’ estimates. Supervisors approved a motion accepting the bid.
Hall asked paperwork be signed on Change Order #2 for work on construction road 7B on the north side of the site. The first lift of asphalt was laid down before winter weather stopped work.
The board opened the following bids on a three-lane ex- pansion of Barringer Road to Wingo Road:
• Stebil, $1,907,514.
• Chancellor Brothers, $2,264,907.
• W.G. Harrell Construction, $2,278,400.
• White Construction, $2,658,100.
• Pro-Site Construction, $2,781,707.
• Madden Phillips Construction, $2,947,700.
• Phillips Contracting Inc., $3,270,918.
The project was estimated in late 2020-2021 at $1,625,000, but financing was short then by $307,000, according to county engineer Larry Britt.
The ARC (Appalachian Regional Council) project was funded by the Mississippi Legislature.
The project shortfall was looked at and after adjusting contingencies and other funds, the shortfall was whittled down to $136,542.
“It is a fairly unique project with Legislative money through an ARC grant,” said Hall.
A private developer offered to provide $480,000 in cash.
The board of supervisors approved the bid of Stebil of Waterford for the project.
Some other projects Britt presented included to program a bridge replacement on Whaley Road that has a rail car span. Bridges with old rail car spans are no longer in vogue with the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
Britt said Coopwood Road bridge replacement was the last bridge with a rail car that was programmed.
And a bridge on French Road needs to be finished.
Britt said the issue is that a church is involved in obtaining an easement for 0.11 acres, but changes in the church leadership has caused the church to ask for compensation for the right-of-way.
Easements from the heirs of an estate are also needed to complete the process.
“We need to get French Road off the books,” Britt said.
The board approved programming the bridge on Whaley Road.
A rail car bridge on Mc-Cauley Road was added to the list of bridges to be programmed. The bridge should be taken back to a box and the rail cars removed, Britt said.
The board approved programming the McCauley Road bridge.
District 5 supervisor Ronnie O’Neil Bennett asked that a rail car bridge on Mills Road be considered for replacement.
He asked that one bridge on McCauley Road be replaced at a time. The two bridges are about 1,000 feet apart, but one bridge should be replaced at a time in order not to cut off access to landowners to their properties, Bennett said.