The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors met for the second time in five days Tuesday, which made its first meeting of 2018 a brief gathering.
Supervisors met for just six minutes before retiring to executive session to discuss a personnel issue. During its regular session, the board unanimously approved a bid from Southeast Mississippi School Products of Columbus for the new playground at the Columbus Soccer Complex. Three companies bid on the project.
Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Director Roger Short said the company’s low bid was $96,612 for a project that’s cap was set at $150,000.
With $75,000 of that cost covered by a donation from the Junior Auxiliary, the county’s portion of the cost will be a little more than $25,000, Short said.
“It’s about a $100,000 project,” Short said. “We’ll have, maybe, $2,000 more to spend for the sidewalk and some landscaping, but that’s about it.”
Short said he expected the playground to be installed and ready for use by the end of March.
In the board’s only other action, supervisors approved five public defenders for 2018, including holdovers Rhonda Hayes-Ellis, Donna Smith and Steve Wallace along with new public defenders Doug Dalrumple Jr. and Jay Hurdle.
The board met in executive session for 20 minutes before announcing that a personal grievance hearing for an employee of the county’s road department will be held at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 16, following the board’s regular meeting.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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