Brookhaven aldermen approved the final payment Tuesday to Dickerson & Bowen for the recent paving project in the downtown area, closing the books on that project.

The project, which created one-way streets out of Whitworth and Railroad avenues, came in $8,000 under budget, said Ryan Holmes with Dungan Engineering.

The contract was for $491,614 but came in at $483,674. The final payment approved is $135,681.

“I’ve been holding their final invoice,” Dungan said. “They had some punch list items that weren’t satisfactory to us.”

Dungan said contractors worked Tuesday to correct the minor punch list items to the engineer’s satisfaction.

Besides the directional changes — with Whitworth running south and Railroad running north — the project also changed the two intersections on Cherokee Street to three-way stops instead of signals. During the project, the downtown streets were repaved and restriped so that parking spaces matched the new pattern. All parallel parking was changed to angled parking to create more space and an additional 36 parking spaces for the entire area.

Cherokee Street from Jackson to South First streets was also repaved. Sawmill, Williams and Dr. Martin Luther King streets were also restriped.

Construction began April 4 and was completed June 2.

The city’s part of the project began in late February with the Public Works Department replacing several manholes on the roads that were repaved.

Manholes are access points to underground utility vaults, which allow opportunities for making connections, inspections, valve adjustments or performing maintenance on underground and buried public utilities and services such as water, sewer, telephone, electricity, heating, natural gas and storm drains. Brookhaven Public Works Director Keith Lewis said it’s best to make those improvements whenever a paving project is underway.

In other business, aldermen:

• Approved resignations of Jonathan Tyler and James H. Williams Jr., both from the street department.

• Approved hiring of Keontavious M. Lofton as a street laborer at $9.18 per hour, Jarish J. Harris as a truck driver in the street department at $10.89 per hour and Marvis Richard Thomas as a laborer in the street department at $9.18 an hour.

• Approved a merit increase in salary for Richard Bynum in the Brookhaven Police Department, from non-certified at $28,085 annually to certified at $30,402 annually.

• Approved payment to C&C Cartage Inc. for $15,534 for hauling mulch.

• Approved payment for flu shots for the part-time employees and employees in the insurance probationary period for $20 per employee for a total of $240.

• Approved the application for Forget Me Not’s 5K run/walk Nov. 11 beginning downtown at 8:30 a.m.

• Approved the adoption of the City of Brookhaven Code of Ordinances, which is a compilation of all city codes and amendments in one location.

• Approved a low bid from Southern Connection for cages and light bars for patrol cars for $21,124.