Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Good evening. This May the 5th, 2026 board of alderman meeting is hereby call to order. I'd like to ask Alderman Gileia to lead our invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance which I'll lead. Please stand.

Thank you mayor. Let us pray. Most gracious God and our heavenly father, we give you great thanks for this day, for your mercy and goodness. We praise you, Lord. You are our rock, our creator, and our redeemer. And Lord, I just pray that you would continue to have your hand upon this city. Bless those at service uh our city. Bless those who take care of our citizens. Thank you, Lord, for the return of those who've been ill and are back with us. And Lord, we pray for those who were in need both physically and through the loss of loved ones this week and in the past few weeks. Lord, as we go through our meeting tonight, I pray that the decisions we make would be glorifying to you, that you give us wisdom and guide us through this meeting. These things we ask in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Be seated. Just as a reminder for board participants and persons who may speak tonight, uh these meetings are strive are streamed live on the city's YouTube channel and also archived for playback. Uh just a reminder that and also those of us with microphones. The microphone should be green when we're speaking so that others can hear what we're speaking about. Madame clerk, would you conduct roll call? Aldridge here. Collins here.

Dickerson here. here. Hard here. Gamage. Hamilton here. Wallace here. Thank you, Miss Stewart. Six president. A quorum is established. Board, we have before you the regular meeting minutes of April the 21st, 2026. Any questions, comments, or motions on those meetings as presented? Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Second. Mr. Collins, second by Miss Hamilton. Any discussion? All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Abstain.

Abstain. Mr. Hart is estained. He was out that particular meeting. Switch locations board to the microphone on the floor. I'd like to invite Miss Sherry Bowen from our utilities department to come forward. This is one of the more fun parts of the board meeting and my job for sure. This is the mayor's award where an employes been nominated by another employer by their supervisor for going above and beyond serving our citizens, which is uh what we should all strive to do. And I'm pleased to read the nomination uh submitted uh uh really submitted by Christy Gear on behalf of a team member who is being talked about in this particular paragraph and gave his blessings to be talked about. Uh but it's for help that Miss Sherry Bowen gave him. A team member came to me somewhat emotional. He wanted to know if I could do him a favor. He asked if I would write something up for him nominating Sherry Bowen for the mayor's award. On March the 9th, Sherry noticed that something was very seriously wrong with a team member. His eye looked very bad and he was very confused and was not making any sense. Sherry told him to get in her vehicle and she took him straight to the Olive Branch Family Medical. Olive Branch Family Medical then sent him to the hospital. At the hospital, they found out that he had a brain bleed and a stroke that was affecting his eye. He stated that they told him his chance

of survival had he not seek help was 50/50. The team member said Sherry saved his life. He said she didn't ask him any questions. She just told him, "Get in my vehicle." He truly feels he wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Sherry. So, he believes, as I do, that she truly deserves a mayor's award. And that employer would be here tonight if he could. He'll be back with us soon, I think. But congratulations. Oh, he is here. my any anything to add or Okay, thank you for letting that be submitted. I know you were asked to make sure it was okay, but we're glad you're back and and glad things went well. Back Monday. Be back Monday. Awesome. Very good.

Okay. Well, not you didn't do it for the award, but as recognition for going above and beyond $250 in cold hard cash. and submitted by business leaders and not from tax dollars or the city's budget. So, congratulations and well done and we're glad you're doing good. board. You have the consent agenda. Any questions on items 1 through 19? More administrative in nature, but any questions on those particular items?

If no questions, any motions, Miss Hamilton, motion to approve. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Wallace. Any discussion? All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. Following the agenda, planning commission new business. This is a public hearing date for consideration and action on a motion declaring the condition of the following properties to be amends to the public health and safety and directing either the city staff or contract labor to clean the property forth with Dr. song.

Mayor Adman, before you is a request to consider declaring as a min of public health and safety a number of properties. At the time that staff sent out this report to you, these three propertit advertised these three properties had not been cleaned, but at the time of the report, these had been taken care of and so no action is needed. Lease B. This is really the lease that uh needed some action taken. From the time that we sent the staff report out to today, the three properties owned by Singh have been clean as I would indicate. So this is lot one, lot two and lot six of the non Sing properties on April 29. all had tall grass as you see in these pictures today. They have all been cleaned. There is a piece of property on lodge lodging lane that is owned by Crumpler Lodging Kvy LLC. That property the grass still remains tall. It has not been cut. The second piece is at 6161 Humphrey Drive. The grass on that property also still remains tall. It has not been mold. As such, the lease before you is revised uh to include all the things property properties on the lease. A those are properties that have been mowled or cleaned uh for which no action is requested tonight. It is recommended that the board take action declaring these two properties owned by Crumpler Lodging KV LRC and the Bobby C. Davis property at 6161 Humpford Drive to be a menace to public health and safety. That

concludes presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. S. Is there anyone here tonight on behalf of these properties? Anyone here that owns or is representing either one of these properties? Seeing no one board any questions of on this report. Any motions? Motion properties. Mr. Dickerson. Motion to declare the two properties listed as amendments to be cleaned up. Is there a second? Second. Second. Mr. Collins. Any discussion? All in favor?

All oppose? Motion carries. Just a brief uh acknowledgement of our code enforcement officers for the month of April. They gave 515 courtesy notices, not citations. People get that confused sometimes, but 515 courtesy notices and it was similar to the ones you just saw. And out of all those notices, only six ended up in court. So people generally do clean up and they do the things that they're supposed to do once they know what those things are and if they are weedy lots then we bring them in and uh the city will pay for that to be cleaned and and do an attachment uh you know a lean or attachment rather to the property but 515 cases total last month and only six in court. So, uh, pretty positive impact. Under new business, uh, consideration of recommendation to approve change order number one on the contract with Lehman Roberts Company in the increasing amount of $643,29.80 80s authorizing the revised contract amount of $4,827,4710 to address unsuitable subgrade conditions for the project referred to as the craft road widening board. Mr. Swims will give you a lot better rendition of this than I will, but it boils down to the dirt and the soil is not compacted enough to do the work that needs to be done on that roadway. Uh we have no way had no way of knowing that and this was an independent engineer did the analysis not the contractor themselves and we have to take the dirt out and treat the dirt and put it back in to make that happen and still double time and try to make it happen before school starts next year. So anything else to add, Mr. Slims? it it's um yeah geotechnical issues that you run into with road work are one of the most um likely causes I guess for uh unexpected

cost and in this case this is the case that we're running into with this onem section of roadway so it is um um uh in a flood plane area uh it did pump for a while we did try to make determinations of what were some of our best options and so a typical thing is to remove we had already put some soil in there is to remove the dirt to to come back and to place um um soil cement in there, do a mixture in it that gives it um stability that it didn't have before. Very typical practice. The geotechnical engineers were involved with it. Uh so it is some additional cost and we knew that was going to be coming uh that's going to um add to this this project. So we are recommending that we move forward with it. The the thing that's going to um slow it down some is right now they're kind of we've kind of stopped the clock on the on the contractor. So, if y'all been by that area, you see there's not a whole lot going on right now. We needed to get board approval, help y'all understand, I guess, why we are running into these additional costs. We do think this is going to fix the problem. Um, but they are requesting that we wait till school gets out, which would be allowing them to go to work on May 26 and actually close Craft Road down for a 35 working day period. may end up being something less than that, but that is that's what they're requesting as a part of this to be able to close craft road for that section just for the period of time once school is out for about a 35day working period uh to get this um corrected. It will help it to move faster. Uh there is a possibility that once they get in there and they start this work, if everything cooperates and the weather cooperates, it could end up being a shorter period of time. But we are recommending that we move forward with that. And we think that that will solve this problem. And and uh while the goal would be, yes, to get the road open before school uh starts back, we're not going to after that period of time, we're not going to be shutting the road down. there won't be any uh chance for

us to have to shut the road down um once school we should be well beyond that where where we've fixed this problem. So there shouldn't be a problem with us trying to have any concerns about shutting the road down while school would be back in operation in the in the um in the fall. So we are recommending we move forward with it. Thank you, Mr. I'll be glad to answer any questions. Questions? Mr. Swims? I I had one. If I recall, this is a joint project with the county. Uh correct. I don't remember the exact split, but are they going to share proportionally in this increased order? Is that all on the city of all branch?

We've under agreement with them for their portion would be $2 million and so um that would be strictly a decision for the board to make, but no, we have not anything in here from the we will approach them and give them the opportunity if they'd like to. If not, that 2 million is their cap as Mr. Swim said. Okay. Any other questions? Motion to approve by Mr. Wallace. Is there a second? Second. Second, Mr. Earheart. Any discussion? All in favor?

All opposed? Motion carries. Item two, consideration of recommendation to approve professional service contract with Jones Davis Engineering in an amount not to see 20 not to exceed $20,000 for easement acquisition for Center Hill Road HP gas main phase 2. Yes, sir. Uh Robbie Jones has done work for us several times with trying to um um prepare easement plats and legal descriptions and so we're asking for his help for this much needed project which is the next phase of the Center Hill gas extension project. So we're asking that y'all approve this not to exceed amount of $20,000.

Thank you. Any questions or motions? Motion to approve. Mr. Dickerson motion to approve. Second. Second, Miss Aldridge. Any discussion? All in favor? I.

All opposed? Motion carries. Item three, consideration of recommendation to approve change order number two on the contract with Phillips Construction, increasing the contract time by 480 days, revising the project completion date to June the 30th, 2026 for the project referred to as a Pleasant Hill Road widening board. You remember that we had discussions with Philips Construction about their performance and some delays. This has absolutely nothing to do with Philips Construction. This is something that we need done because we need this work done after school is has let out this year because it's work in the area on some sidewalks and things that the students are using today. And the 480 days is not 480 additional days. It's just from the start of the contract and the new completion date would be June the 30th, 2026. and we asked for the extension so we can get the work done. I know you're familiar with it.

Yeah, this year. Yeah. We got what a couple piece of sidewalk and some asphalt to do. Excuse me, a concrete to do around a guywire and a few things that one of Miss Hamilton's constituents pointed out to us that we were working on and now we're really working on it. So, yeah. So it can't be used to save an additional. The motion would be to change the contract time to 480 days instead of by 480 days. So from the start to June the 30th be 480 days. Can we do that? Mr. Mr. D,

it just I would defer to engineering because it needs to actually be the amount of time that the contract allows. I I I can't speak to the contract time frame in order to answer Mr. Wallace's question. The uh you're talking about the way it's phrased as in the uh Okay, let me look instead of contract time by 480 days to change it to contract time to 480 days. I think that would be correct to change it to 480 days to 480 days total. Total

not an additional 480 on top of whatever the original contract time was. The way it's worded almost sounds like a year and a half to I thought it was to 480 80 days total, but I could be mistaken. So, so the mot total time the motion itself is not how the contract's going to be written, but we want it to reflect what the contract is saying. Correct. Well, it needs to just simply because this is a change order to the contract. So, whatever is approved tonight will be what the contract becomes. So, we need to be clear on the on the time frame.

I I tend to agree with Alderman Wallace that it needs to be more definitive to a total of 480 days if that again that deadline should also limited as well. If this were not a public meeting, I'd defer to Miss Brock, but I can't do that because it is a public meeting, but she's my brearian. Mr. Mr. Lawyer, what do you think?

Well, the change order that's in the board's packet um says that the contract period provided for completion will be 480 days. And so, are Mr. Swims, are you saying that the total contract time allowed is 480 days? not that this change order would be adding an additional 480 days to a a pre-existing period. That would have taken it basically um for about a year and three four months or something like that. Um I I'm if if y'all would let me pause this, I can I can go and find out if there's something that I'm missing on. But I thought it was the total contract. H

Okay. Can we post on it till next week?

And here's another, let me ask this another way, Mr. SWS. In your memo, your recommendation is to approve change order two, a time only change order revising the project completion date to June 30th, 2026. Is the June 30th date the accurate time frame? in which you need the contract extended to. That is correct. Then mayor, regardless, we could back into the calculation later. If as long as everyone's in agreement on the June 30th date, we can provide the the number of days later after Mr. Swims has an opportunity to actually perform that calculation. But if June 30th date's accurate, then we've got a date certain that we're dealing with.

I make a motion to long as completion date is June 30th. You could make a motion to approve the city engineers recommendation and that's would reflect that June 30th date and we would be able to proceed right now. I'll make that motion. Everybody clear on the motion? I'll second. Second by Miss Hamilton. She must be clear. Any discussion? All in favor?

All opposed? That's why we have the attorneys here because I have said yes. Sounds good. Next item, consideration of recommendation to approve contract number two with Neil Schaefer Incorporated in the additive amount of $69,476, increasing the contract from $96,740 to $166,216 for the project referred to as Oldtown Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project. Uh Mr. Swims, this is helping with rightaways and acquisitions. Is that right? Or additional

the for the for the pro for what we're trying to do here. This is for an increase from a partial construction engineering and inspection project to a full partial of to a full construction engineering and inspection by Neil Schaefer. This project started off being um kind of jointly done by public works and the city and um Neil Schaeer. And so it kind of moved into where Neil Schaefer was doing more of the um the actual design work and and more of the CNI. We've already approved for them to do partial. We're asking for new hourly rates um and an increase for them to do the complete um CNI work for this project. So using those hourly rates and so forth, it brings the project um additional fee for that work up to $69,47376. So that's what we requesting that the board approve for us to move forward with with them.

And after this, should the board approve it time framewise before it actually gets started is when when should the project get started? Yeah. If this we're just waiting on the final documents to be signed and we should be from this particular item. Yes, sir. Okay. Any questions? Board, what was that you just said? We're just waiting on the final documents which would include this to be signed. Then they can start the upgrade of the sewer project for Oldtown. They're already looking for a place to store the equipments, pipes, left contract last time. Yeah. And this is uh partly core of engineers at what 529 or that's it's the 592. 592. Okay. Yep.

Any questions or motions to go forward with this? Mr. Collins motion. Second, Mr. Wallace. Any discussion? All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Is there a motion to leave regular session with the intentions of going into executive session for items 1 through six? So move. Miss Hamilton. Motion. Second, Miss Aldridge. All in favor?

All oppose? Motion carries. Is there a motion to go in executive session to discuss personnel matter in the parks department, personnel matters in the police department, personnel matter in the street department, personnel matter in the gas billing department? discussion with Mississippi, excuse me, with city attorney, Mississippi code annotated 254174BJ and executive summary. Is there a motion to go in executive session for those items? So move, Mr. Hart motion. Second, Mr. Collins. All in favor? All oppose. We are in executive session.