Lincoln County supervisors Monday awarded over $1.1 million incontracts for a new section of Dunn-Ratcliff Road and a new bridgeover Arthur Drive in District 5.

Lincoln County supervisors Monday awarded over $1.1 million incontracts for a new section of Dunn-Ratcliff Road and a new bridgeover Arthur Drive in District 5.

A $707,836 project will see about two miles of new road workdone on Dunn-Ratcliff Road between the north exit of Interstate 55and Highway 550. The contract period is 120 working days.

“It will help everybody who lives west of there and some peoplewho work in the industrial park,” said District 5 Supervisor GaryWalker, adding that he was very happy to see a contract finallyawarded.

Oddee Smith Construction was the only bidder on the project.

Company Vice-president J. Ronny Smith said he was glad thecompany could work in Lincoln County, and he expressed commentssimilar to Walker’s.

“This is going to be very good for the folks in the western partof the county,” Smith said. “It’s going to be a good situation forpeople coming into the north exit.”

Magco Inc., of Laurel, was awarded the contract for a new bridgeon Arthur Drive. The company’s bid was the lowest of threereceived.

Walker said the current bridge is old and damaged.

“It’ll make it a lot safer out there,” Walker said about theproject, which has a construction period of 100 working days.

Walker expected both projects would get under way in April. TheDunn-Ratcliff Road project will use part of the county’s State Aidroad funds while the Arthur Drive bridge will be paid for with thecounty’s Local System Bridge Program funds.

Both projects’ bids were below engineer estimates. TheDunn-Ratcliff project was estimated at $722,837 and the ArthurDrive bridge work was estimated at $540,224.

“It looks like we’ve got some good bids here today,” said StateAid Engineer Marty Hilton below verifying the winning bids forsupervisors to approve.

STORM HELP

Also Monday, Lincoln County Civil Defense Director CliffordGaley encouraged citizens who have sustained damage from recentstorms to call an 800-number and apply for assistance following adisaster declaration for the county. The number is1-800-462-9029.

“The 800-number really makes it easy for the city, county and mebecause they don’t have to go through us to get it done,” Galeysaid about citizens applying for help.

By calling the number, citizens will get information on whattypes of assistance they are eligible for and how to go aboutgetting that help.

Galey said four homes in the county and three in the citysustained some damage. He added there may have been others thatwere not reported.

After attending a meeting in Purvis Monday afternoon, Galey saidfederal officials will be in the county Thursday to discuss thegovernment entity disaster assistance application process. Thecounty reported $106,000 in damage, mostly from roads and bridges,during the recent storms.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business Monday, the speed limit on six District 4roads was lowered from 55 miles per hour to 45 miles per hour.Engineers and Supervisor W.D. “Doug” Moak cited safety concerns inseeking the lower speed limit.

Affected roads include Auburn, Arlington, Jackson-Liberty, BogueChitto, Summit and Callender.

In meeting-related matters, supervisors elected to discontinuetheir last working day of the month meetings. The board hastraditionally met on the first and third Mondays and last workingday of the month.

They said meeting agendas lately have been light and the thirdmeeting is often unnecessary. Like at the end of this month,supervisors said they would meet Friday, March 30, and then againthe following Monday, April 2, and they did not think the Fridaymeeting would be needed.

On a related topic, supervisors are considering new chairs foraround the meeting table. They said the current chairs are about 20years old and are worn out.

The price of the chairs was estimated at $300 each, although itcould be lower with a volume discount. Supervisors did not act onchair plans.

In a light-hearted moment during the meeting, District 3Supervisor Nolan Earl Williamson and District 2 Supervisor Bobby J.Watts used the tried-and-true method of flipping a coin todetermine who would get an old tool box from the county’s unitsystem days. Other supervisors expressed no interest in the toolbox.

“You get it,” Watts said after calling “heads” and Williamson’scoin flip revealed “tails.”