A long-awaited, federally funded project to improve stormwater drainage in the city is slated to begin in August.

Josh Sansing, project manager for Waggoner Engineering – the firm overseeing the project – said Friday that Meridian-based Cullum Construction should begin work “in the next week or two,” most likely in the areas of 15th Street and Fifth Avenue South down to Bell Avenue, as well as 15th Street and Fourth Avenue North.

The city council approved Cullum’s bid of about $5.31 million in May for drainage improvements in 10 areas of the city, five each on Northside and Southside. Only eight sites were included in the base project scope, Sansing said, but the bid came in favorably enough that the council approved adding two alternate sites.

“It’s all within budget, and there’s a little bit of contingency too, so if anything else arises, they may be able to tackle it,” Sansing said. “… Whatever you don’t spend, you have to get back.”

The city has $6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project, which must be spent by September 2026. Cullum’s contract runs into May of next year, Sansing said, but issues like weather delays could extend the expected finish date.

Work will largely involve ditch and box culvert clearing, replacing dilapidated storm drains and erosion control in ditches, Sansing said.

“We’re hoping that it helps with the flow, and the flooding issues aren’t as bad in some of these isolated areas,” Sansing said. “It’s not going to fix everything everywhere.

“I’ve seen pictures where there are culverts completely covered up,” he added. “If the water can’t get through the culvert, then it’s just going to sit there. It’s getting to the point where it’s got to flood to a certain level to where it will drain.”

The original eight sites selected for drainage improvement work include: 18th Street North; 18th Street and 12th Avenue North; Seventh Avenue and 17th Street North; Bell Avenue; Fifth Avenue South; 15th Street and Seventh Avenue South; South Columbus Ditch; and 15th Street and Fourth Avenue North.

Selected alternates include areas near 23rd Street North and a ditch on College Street near the Lowndes County Juvenile Detention Center.

What about the easements?

With Waggoner designing the ARPA projects and overseeing the work, the Neel-Schaffer engineering firm was tasked in February with obtaining needed easements to accommodate construction.

An easement gives the right to cross or use someone else’s land for a specific purpose – in this case, drainage work.

So far, the city has 69 of the 85 needed easements for the first eight sites, said Katy Glenn, Neel-Schaffer graduate engineer. Of the holdouts, six are going through eminent domain and eight are “achievable but stubborn,” she said. The firm is no longer pursuing two railroad company owned easements on Southside due to the difficulty and time it would take to nail them down.

Glenn said the firm has gotten all the easements for a few of the original sites, with the rest having between one and four holdouts.

That process, both she and Neel-Schaffer North Mississippi Manager Kevin Stafford said, has been difficult at times, especially in cases with absentee landowners and multiple heirs.

One holdout, Stafford noted, is an inmate in Birmingham, Alabama. He is one of three owners of a property where the other two have signed the easement paperwork.

In another case, where the easement was obtained, a property was owned by a woman in her 80s who lived in Baltimore, Maryland, and was recovering from surgery. She couldn’t get to a notary public, so Glenn found one to send to her.

“That’s some of the things we’re having to go through,” Stafford said. “… We’ve identified every single property, issue or not. There’s not a property we haven’t contacted and we don’t know what the situation is.”

But Cullum can work in any of the areas even as Neel-Schaffer keeps obtaining easements.

“What my experience has been, when you show up with a dozer, and you’re working on (a) neighbor’s property, and (the owner) runs out (asking), ‘Why did you skip my property?’ you say, ‘Sir, you didn’t sign the easements,’” Stafford said. “Then it’s, ‘Where do I sign?’”

Neel-Schaffer drew up the first 85 easements in October 2024, and Waggoner secured 14 of them before Neel-Schaffer took over that task, Stafford said.

The city contracted with Neel-Schaffer for $66,000 to create the first 85 easements and obtain what Waggoner didn’t. Earlier this month, the council added $17,699.17 for the same work in the alternate areas, where 22 are needed.

The area around College Street contains seven of those, Glenn said, and the Northside area has 15.

Stafford said the easements usually extend a matter of feet onto someone’s property, but it is important for property owners to remember the city isn’t “taking their land.” It is simply accessing it for the project and taking permanent responsibility for maintaining that spot.

“It’s your ditch. It’s really your responsibility to maintain,” Stafford said. “We’re trying to help you help yourself. … Also, in the future, when it’s grown up and you don’t feel like maintaining it yourself, you can call the city and say, ‘Hey, this ditch I gave you the easement on needs to be maintained,’ and now we will.”

Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.

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