NATCHEZ, Miss. – City officials are applying for a federal grant to repair the brick wall that helps support part of Silver Street. Deterioration is imperiling the structure that runs along part of the riverside street going down to Natchez Under-the-Hill.
Estimates have it costing about $510,000 to repair the retaining wall, said James Johnston, the city’s community development director. The wall abuts below Silver Street’s west side in front of The Camp restaurant and Under-the-Hill Saloon.
The Board of Aldermen agreed Tuesday to apply for funds from the federal Delta Regional Authority, which has a new $30 million grant program for public infrastructure projects in eight southern states.
Aldermen on Tuesday also approved plans for seeking bids from contractors for elevating the lower part of Silver Street to protect it from Mississippi River floodwaters. The project is budgeted to cost about $2.4 million, which is mostly coming from federal funds the city has already received.
While contingent on when a contract is awarded to a roadbuilder, Mayor Dan Gibson expressed hopes work can begin soon in the coming months. “We’re finally going to get this project underway,” Gibson said.
When the road work does progress, Gibson noted, plans are to provide public-transit service up and down Silver Street to limit car traffic but ensure people still have access to Natchez Under-the-Hill’s two eateries, bar, shop and passenger-riverboat landings.
This comes as the upper Mississippi River is approaching near-record flooding caused by the rapid melting of a huge snowpack in northern Minnesota. Residents in that region are evacuating and communities are scrambling with sandbagging efforts to protect themselves from the high water. The swollen river is now overtaking parts of Wisconsin and Iowa.
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In a separate project for Natchez, the resurfacing of dozens of city streets could begin in June after contractors submit their proposals next month on how much it’ll cost. Aldermen could decide in late May which bid is the best. The board has a list of 75 Natchez streets to repave using $6 million borrowed through bonds for what’s considered the largest Natchez street-resurfacing project in recent years.
Aldermen are seeking new proposals from roadbuilders after the one bid submitted in March was $3 million more than what was budgeted.
As the city redoes the bidding process, Gibson said steps have been made to reduce asphalting costs and keep within the $6 million budget to pave as many of the 75 listed streets as possible.
How is going to reduce asphalting costs? Meanwhile this $6 million has been sitting around waiting for the costs to go up. I thought they had their lists of streets to be resurfaced months ago. It’s hard to tell since the City Clerk won’t publish the minutes on the City of Natchez website where minutes have been posted since 2014. Someone doesn’t want us knowing what’s going on in our government and are making it impossible to find out. There’s a search engine on the website but the City won’t use it because then we would all be aware of the how the city is spending our money. There’s a lot of money flowing around unseen.
It’s been since October 25th that they have been discussing this $6 million bond for re-surfacing the streets.
http://www.natchez.ms.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10252022-647
Why did it take 5 months to get a bid? Who decided it would take $6 million before the bids went out? Lots of talk, lots of questions and no answers. Sure would be nice to see those minutes on line since we are halfway through the fiscal year without any. Why doesn’t the Mayor and City Clerk want us to see the minutes as has been done for the last 9 years?