The Vicksburg Warren School District has received the first bids for projects that will be completed as part of its $131.5 million facilities plan.

The first project to go out for bid was the reroofing project at Beechwood Elementary and the district received four bids on the project Thursday afternoon. All four bids were taken under advisement and the project will be awarded at the Board of Trustees meeting July 26.

The low bidder was E Cornell Malone Corporation out of Jackson with a bid of $1,322,570. The next lowest bid came from Roofing Solutions from Prairieville, Louisiana, with a bid of $1,412,000.

Independent Roofing Solutions from Jackson bid $1,488,000 for the project, and Industrial Roofing and Construction was the highest bidder at $1,750,000.

Gary Bailey, who is managing the project for Dale Bailey Architects, said the budget for the project is $1.3 million and they have contingencies built into the budget to cover the slight overage. He added that receiving two out-of-state bids for the project was good for the district because it showed there is interest and a competitive market for the work being done.

State law requires them to accept the “lowest, best bid,” Bailey said, adding he expects they will award the project to the lowest bidder baring unforeseen circumstances after they are all scored.

At the beginning of the project, Bailey said the project included $12 million worth of roofing projects throughout the district. At the June meeting of the Board of Trustees, Bailey said further inspection of the district’s roofs showed that some areas they thought needed work didn’t, but some areas they thought were fine did need to be reroofed.

In all, they found an additional $980,000 worth of roofing projects throughout the district. The additional roofing projects were approved to go forward by the board along with other additional projects totaling more than $6 million, the largest of which were gym expansions at the two high schools.

Bailey said the current funding sources for the project included enough money to cover the additional projects without any added cost to Warren County taxpayers.

The district will receive bids for the reroofing project at Vicksburg Junior High School Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the central office on Mission 66. The project will also be awarded at the July meeting of the Board of Trustees.