During Monday night’s Indianola Board of Aldermen meeting, the city lawmakers voted unanimously to allow Gardner Engineering to proceed with the bidding process for the College Avenue Bridge as soon as they receive confirmation of funds.
The city recently received notice that it has been awarded $650,832 through the Mississippi Transportation Commission for emergency road and bridge projects.
The bridge has been restricted for a number of years and was recently shut completely down after inspections revealed a crack in the structure. Lake Baird of Gardner Engineering reminded the Aldermen that the bridge has been designed and ready to go for 10 years, but has been waiting on funding.
“We want to move forward with it, go ahead and advertise this project,” said Baird. Although official authorization has not been received, Baird said he was seeking permission from the city to go ahead as soon as they receive the consent instead of having to wait another two weeks for the next board meeting. “If they give us authority Friday, we’ll put it in the paper next Thursday,” he said.
He said it would take approximately a month from the time the notices are placed in the newspaper to get to the point where they can actually award the bids.
In other business,
The members discussed changing the fees for opening and closing graves at the city’s cemetery, Alderman Sam Brock had requested rates and pricing information at a previous meeting, however no decision was made.
After a discussion, the city fathers voted to allow the fire chief to proceed with the purchase of a 2018 Chevrolet Tahoe.
At a previous session,
Police Chief Edrick Hall presented his monthly report for December, which included 1,079 calls for the month and a total of 14,123 calls for the year of 2018. He also provided the city leaders with a statistical breakdown of crime percentages by police zones.
The fire department also presented their monthly totals for December and the year 2018, which included 15 for the month and 209 calls for the year.
The city leaders also approved a request by the B.B. King Museum to block off streets for the 2019 B.B. King Homecoming, set for June 1.
They also approved the departmental reports for the cemetery department and the public works department.
After emerging from executive session, city lawmakers voted to accept the resignation of Policeman DeMarco Bailey and remove Officer Brittany McGrone from probationary status.
