About $25,000 in back pay to sub-contractors for two Lowndes County house rebuilding projects will be paid by the county and reimbursed by the state.
County supervisors approved a request Wednesday from the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District to pay the suppliers of the HOME Investment Participation Program directly and ask the Mississippi Development Authority to pay that same amount back to the county.
Last year, LRJ&J Construction was awarded contracts to rebuild two homes as part of the program for about $88,000 per house. Citing a lack of progress, supervisors voided both contracts in July. The next-to-lowest bidder for the project, Gladney Construction, agreed to pick up where LRJ&J left off, but GTPDD planner and housing specialist Spencer Broocks said a new payment system the state switched to in July has delayed all payments for contractors who are building houses for the HOME program.
“The contractor was counting on that money to come in in order to get started,” Broocks said. “From what I hear, that money should be in within the next week or so. He can get started once that money comes in.”
Broocks added that the county will be made whole by MDA for any extra costs associated with the delay in construction progress.
“(MDA has) been having some other situations in the state also, so y’all are not the only ones that are going through this,” Broocks told supervisors. “I know that doesn’t make you feel any better, but there are some issues with the program that they are trying to work out at the state level to prevent this from happening in the future.”
The MDA requests applications for the program every year. Qualified applicants have owned their homes for at least a year, and the house must be suffering from substantial deficiencies. The homes are demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. GTPDD administers the applications on behalf of Lowndes County. Supervisors oversee the bidding process and payments for construction of the homes. Broocks said this year requests totaled $35 million, but the state only received $3.9 million to distribute.
The two homeowners who were awarded HOME projects were August Fergerson of Gilmer Wilburn Road in Artesia and Willie Hill of George Bridges Road in Crawford.
In other business:
■ District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks said he was approached by someone who was interested in purchasing a piece of property the county owns near the old health department on Military Road. The board agreed to have the property appraised and offer it for the appraised value;
■ The board heard two personnel matters and were updated on a pending legal matter. It took no action on any of the matters;
■ The board agreed to amend Aurora Flight Science’s lease agreement with the county.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
