The City of Winona recently completed the expansion of the service road at the new Stribling/Empire Trucks dealership, and the board of aldermen voted Tuesday to begin the process to resurface several other streets in the city.
The frontage road project near the Stribling/Empire Trucks dealership was completed last month. The $365,000 project, which was funded by a grant from Appalachian Regional Authority and a 20 percent match from the City of Winona, expanded the frontage road on the southwestern corner of Highway 82 and Interstate 55, from the Pilot Truck Stop to the property line of the dealership.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Winona Mayor and Board of Aldermen, the board voted to hire Alan Scott of Engineering Services of Grenada to begin creating the project specifications to start the bid process to resurface all or a portion of eight streets in the city – Shirley Avenue, Turner Street, Oak Drive, Lamar Street (the west side from Speedway), Sterling Avenue (north of the railroad track), a portion of Scotland Road, and Montgomery Street from College Street to Lamar Street.
The project will be funded by $500,000 provided by the State of Mississippi’s BP settlement money allocated to the state’s infrastructure. Mayor Jerry Flowers credited Representative Karl Oliver (R-Winona) for helping Winona get funding for this project but also for funding the Powell Street paving project.
In addition, the board is prioritizing other city streets it hopes to resurface using funds currently in the city’s budget. Flowers asked the board to provide him with a list of streets in each ward to be considered by the next meeting.
In other city business:
• The board approved the lease purchase of a new paver machine, a front-end loader, and a side-by-side RTV at the state contract price for the Winona Street Department. The board approved the purchase of these three machines to be paid for as part of a recent city bond issue which allocated $540,000 for equipment for the street and water department. Other equipment purchases have been proposed and will be addressed at a later date.
• The board approved the purchase of two pick-up trucks at the state contract price of $24,745 for the Winona Street Department and the Winona Water Department. Funds to purchase these trucks were set aside in this year’s budget.
• The board accepted the resignation of Tyra Weathersby from the Winona Parks Department and voted to hire Jasmine McMath and Mikhiyah Crawford for concessions.
• The board voted to amend the city’s fireworks ordinance to specify December 20 to January 2 and July 1 to July 5 as the time period fireworks may be sold in the city limits of Winona. In addition, all signage for temporary fireworks sellers can only be displayed during this time period.
• The board accepted the resignation of Laurie Lockett as an election commissioner for the city. Lockett is not allowed to hold public office as tax assessor/collector and serve as an election commissioner for the city. The board appointed James Hunger to fill her spot on the commission.
• The board approved hiring Jonathan Johnson for the Winona Water Department.
