Meridian and Lauderdale County residents will have to wait a few weeks before seeing paving crews return to work as a planned shutdown of the asphalt plant has temporarily suspended ongoing projects.
County Road Manager Rush Mayatt told the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors on Monday that APAC, which is in the middle of a project paving roughly 17 miles of county road and also owns and operates the local asphalt plant, would be back in a few weeks to finish work on Old Eighth Street Road before tackling paving projects in the area around State Boulevard Extension.
The planned shutdown of the asphalt plant allows the company to make repairs and perform necessary maintenance on the plant’s equipment, Mayatt said.
Meridian Public Works Director David Hodge told the City Council a similar story at the council’s meeting Tuesday night. The city has a term bid for paving with Falcon Contracting, which is based in Columbus, but paving can’t be done without asphalt.
Hodge said he expected the asphalt plant to reopen in mid-January.
Road paving, however, is not the only city project that is facing delays. In Tuesday’s meeting council members were told a project to install sidewalks along 24th Street between 14th and 23rd avenues has been delayed as the contractor is tied up on other jobs.
Originally slated to begin in the first week of December, the contractor, Simmons Erosion Control, now plans to start around the second week of January.
A bridge project along 34th Street near the Meridian Activity Center is also planned to get underway after the first of the year.
Hodge told council members they could expect mobilization of equipment to start by mid-January or early February. The project was awarded in June.
Police Department
In other business, Meridian Police Department is continuing to work on developing a request for proposals for vendors to bid on a new surveillance system for the city. The City Council on Tuesday voted to approve the use of the Fusus software, a cloud-based program that interfaces with various video feeds, E-911, cellphones and more.
Police Chief Deborah Naylor Young said the approval of the software gives her department the green light to gather the necessary specifications needed for the RFP.
Councilman George Thomas asked if anyone from MPD or the city had spoken with Lauderdale County about the plan to implement the Fusus program. While the city is positive the software is compatible, he said, E911 is owned and operated by the county.
Young said she plans to get with the city’s Information Technology people and work with them to coordinate with the county.
Also for the police department, the council approved a sole source purchase from Axon Enterprise Inc. for tasers.
Young said Axon is the same company that provides MPD’s body and in-vehicle cameras. The Axon tasers, she said, can connect with the Axon cameras and work together.
Assistant Chief Patrick Gale said the system can be set up to automatically begin recording when the weapon is drawn.
“When you remove the taser from the holster, it automatically turns the camera on,” he said.
Young said the department plans to purchase 82 tasers at a cost of $345,600. The tasers will have a five-year warranty, and the cost was included in the department’s budget.