A Richland company has been awarded the contract to upgrade the electrical system at the city’s water treatment plant on Haining Road.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to sign the $2.2 million agreement with Electro-Mech Inc. of Richland to make the improvements. Electro-Mech’s bid was the lowest of three submitted on the project in February.

Other bidders were McInnis Electric of Jackson, $2.8 million; and Hemphill Construction of Richland, $2.58 million.

Money for the project is coming through a loan from the city’s gas department’s surplus.

Public works director Garnet Van Norman said the plant’s present 2,400-volt system is obsolete, adding there are very few companies that have the equipment for the system.

“We were having to rob parts to keep it going,” he said.

“We’re going to go back with 480 (volts),” he said. “We’ll put in new transformers, new control rooms, new motors, new everything.”

He said installation of the new system will take time because the equipment for it will have to be built. “Once they (the contractor) get that in, they can start the installation.”

The contract with Electro-Mech was one of four agreements on capital projects approved Monday by the board. Other agreements included:

• Flaggs was authorized to sign an agreement with Anderson Contracting LLC of Yazoo City to demolish and remove the Kemp Bottom Road bridge. The company’s $108,466 bid was the lowest of four on the project.

The road, which is the direct route to Entergy’s Baxter Wilson power plant, is a public road. Van Norman said Entergy barricaded the road with a gate at the city’s request to prevent traffic from going down the road.

In a related matter, the board ratified the city’s agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District enabling the Corps to assist the city with provide technical assistance as it investigates the problem with bank stabilization at Hennessy Bayou.

Bank erosion problems caused city officials to close the bridge July 24. The bridge collapsed two days later.

• The board approved an agreement with Commercial Construction & Maintenance of Jackson to renovate and expand the clubhouse and pro shop at the Halls Ferry tennis courts.

Commercial’s bid was $723,778, about $23,778 more than the estimated $700,000 for the project. The difference will be covered with money from the $9.06 million bond issue.

• Approved a two-year agreement with All Weather Inc. of Sacremento, California, to maintain the Vicksburg Municipal Airport’s automated weather observing systems at a cost of $5,400 the first year and $5,700 the second.

AWOS, as it is called, provides pilots with current information on weather conditions at the airport.