NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mayor Dan Gibson had to break Natchez aldermen’s 3-3 tie Tuesday in voting to hire a local contractor to do more work needed for Commerce Street sidewalk improvement project.
Gibson rebuffed the three dissenting aldermen’s assertions that Hope Enterprises has been too slow renovating the Natchez Convention Center and doing other city construction projects.
“They have done good work for us,” said Gibson, noting delays renovating the convention center have been due to conferences held there that city officials didn’t want to disrupt with construction work. He also noted Hope’s $8,000 costs for sealing the Commerce Street sidewalks is far less than what two other construction companies proposed.
Siding with Gibson were Aldermen Sarah Carter Smith, Ben Davis and Curtis Moroney. Dissenting were Aldermen Valencia Hall, Billie Joe Frazier and Felicia Bridgewater Irving.
Frazier argued the city awards Hope a lopsided share of city construction work and takes too long to finish. “They have too many projects and they are not coming in on time,” he said.
The Commerce Street project, which began last year, is largely finished for the downtown block between Main and Franklin streets. It’s been envisioned as an arts district with the old Ritz theater as its centerpiece. Natchez in 2022 got nearly $470,000 in federal funds for this funneled through the Mississippi Department of Transportation. The money was combined with city funds to make sidewalks more handicapped accessible and to install new sidewalk lighting and light poles.
Meeting Tuesday evening, the Board of Aldermen also approved the purchase of 83 computers for most Natchez municipal offices. The Dell computers — with a total cost of about $74,000 — are needed to replace the city’s outdated computers.
Getting new computers “is a good move and something we really need to do,” said Alderman Curtis Moroney.
Did they put out a request for bids on these 85 computers for $74,000?