Three local contractors and one from Pearl have submitted bids with the Warren County Board of Supervisors for an erosion repair project on the slope of a bayou in the Bowmar Avenue area.

The supervisors opened the bids during their meeting Monday. Bidding on the project were Fordice Construction, $96,107.50; Central Asphalt, $78,472.27; Unicon, $69,694.25; and Theobald Construction Services LLC, $99,620. Fordice, Central Asphalt and Theobald are all from Vicksburg. Unicon is from Pearl.

The bids were taken under advisement and the board is expected to make a decision on the contractor at its first meeting in January, county administrator John Smith said.

The project is funded by a Natural Resources Conservation Service erosion control grant that will most of the project costs, Smith said, with the county paying a percentage and the engineering fee.

“The engineer’s estimate was $118,677.50,” he said. “The grant pays 85 percent of that and we pay 15 percent and the engineer’s fee.

“This thing has been going on for two years; we’ve been waiting on paperwork to get qualified with NRCS,” Smith.

The bayou runs along the property of King David No. 2 Missionary Baptist Church, under a bridge and north of Bowmar. “The church has erosion problems,” Smith said, adding residents in the area talked to District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon about the problem and he brought it to the board.

• In another matter, the board declared a 1990 fire truck operated by the Fisher Ferry Volunteer Fire Department surplus and approved its sale to Deep South Fire Truck Co. “Once a fire truck reaches 20 years old, it serves no purpose for our ratings,” county fire coordinator Jerry Briggs said, explaining the reason for the sale. He said Deep South will refurbish the truck and put it up for sale to another department.