By Myra Bean

Sardis Mayor and Board of Aldermen decided to officially schedule two regular board meetings each month. The meetings will be held the first and third Tuesdays at 5 p.m. at City Hall.

The board met in a special called meeting Tuesday to deal with the bids that were opened last week on the walking trail, BP overlay, and Edwin Circle projects.

The board tabled discussion on its new engineer to design the safe route to school. They boarded voted to rescind the vote to hire Cook-Coggin in its special meeting held Wednesday, May 15.

Alderman JoJo Still was quite vocal in that he thinks the sidewalk from the North Panola High School down to Frederick Street is a waste of money. The project is expected to cost $600,000. The town has to pay 20 percent or $120,000 plus the design fees.

The two engineering firms left who submitted bids said they will each charge a 10 percent fee, or $65,000, to do the design.

Cook-Coggin came in with a 12-13 percent charge and did not want to negotiate with the board which upset Alderman-at-large Michael Price, who was not in attendance when the board voted for the engineering firm.

The board did agree to hire Argo Construction Corp. as the contractor of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) sanitary sewer rehabilitation project.

This project covers from the railroad going west to Highway 51.

Heritage Builders’ bid to complete the BP overlay project was accepted at $279,337. BP gave the city $250,000 for the job. David Evans, engineer, was paid $10,000 for his part. That left $240,000 for the overlay.

The town will have to come up with the other $39,337. Mayor Lula Palmer suggested cutting out some of the other proposed work to take $22,000 from that amount. The other $17,000 is manageable, according to outgoing city clerk Jeanne Goforth.

The board did not accept any of the bids on the DRA – Edwin Circle Sanitary lift station replacement project. Both bids came in way over what engineer David Evans estimated it would cost to do the work.

He explained the firms misunderstood what would be needed for the project. They will re-advertise for the bids and open them June 28.

Playground Equipment

The board tabled the discussion of putting a piece of playground equipment in the middle of the walking trail which is in the process of being built. They also discussed putting a fence around the playground, or all around the walking trail, to cut it off from the unnamed road that runs between the trail and the baseball field.

Payroll System

The board voted to purchase an updated payroll system from BBI. The price for the three time clocks is $7,380 which includes the price of training on the system. The time clock will read each employees handprint.

The board also tabled discussion of the comprehensive zoning plan until Wednesday, May 29, at 2 p.m.

May 15 Special Meeting

The board chose Palmer and Alderwoman Bonnie Smith as voting delegate and alternate for the upcoming Mississippi Municipal League Conference.

The town’s deputy clerk position will now be part-time as long as a quality applicant can take care of the position. If at anytime the position becomes too much for a part time person, new city clerk Angela Hayward Edwards is to let the board know.

The board went along with the suggestion of making this position part-time, but they as a whole did not like it.