Work could begin as soon as Monday paving the parking lots at Halls Ferry Road and the Bazinsky ball fields.

Assistant public works director Jeff Richardson said Central Asphalt of Vicksburg, the low bidder for the project, was given the notice to proceed starting Monday during a preconstruction meeting Friday.

“They can start at any time,” he said.

Richardson said the contract calls for the project to be completed within 70 days, weather permitting, adding the goal is to have the work completed before the baseball and softball seasons get into full swing.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Dec. 23 awarded the project to Central Asphalt, which bid $714,573.54 to do the project, which includes installing lights at the Bazinsky parking lot. Central’s bid was under the city’s $807,000 budget for the work. The paving project was included in the city’s paving plan funded by a $9.2 million capital improvements bond issue.

Halls Ferry and Bazinsky are heavily used for baseball and softball leagues, and tennis activity. The Halls Ferry lot is the only one of the three that is paved, but the asphalt is cracking and breaking, and area patched in the past are beginning to crumble and break.

Two parking lots for the Bazinsky fields are dirt and gravel, and have no lighting other than the light cast from the lighting from the ball fields. The parking area by the baseball diamond used by some of the area high schools has deep ruts and pieces of asphalt.

Richardson said the said the contractor has not said where the work would begin, but “they talked about starting work on the girls softball field first. It’s up to the contractor what he wants to do, but that’s where he was looking at doing. It’s the north parking lot off Bazinsky Road.”

He said preparation to install parking lot lighting at both Bazinsky parking lots will be done before lots are paved.

“They’ve got to do all the site work (which includes drainage work), which includes the trenching for the conduit and the footings for the light poles,” he said. 

Paving for Halls Ferry Park and the Bazinsky ball fields, and four additional tennis courts at Halls Ferry Park were among the major items included in the list of capital improvements projects funded by the city’s bond issue.

The tennis courts were dedicated in August, and will be the site of the Mississippi Tennis Association’s 55-and-over Combination Doubles Championship in November  and again in 2018. The annual tournament features about 250 players from around the state.