[10/7/03]A new round of bids contains prices closer to the county’s budget for roof and other repairs to the old Warren County Courthouse.

Also at Monday’s meeting of the board of supervisors, Sheriff Martin Pace, as chairman of the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Committee, conducted a hearing on this year’s federal grant funding for law enforcement.

Three companies offered to do the courthouse work under revised specifications. Mayrant and Associates of Jackson offered the lowest base bid at $558,600. The other bidders were Fordice Construction Co. of Vicksburg at $634,390 and Billy E. Burnett Inc. of Tuscaloosa, Ala., at $637,000.

Supervisors referred the new bids to Al Hopton of Brumfield, Hopton and Brumfield, the architect for the project. Hopton said he would go over the bids and formulate which, if any, of the four additive alternates should be considered. The board then voted to return at 9 a.m. Thursday to make a decision.

The old courthouse, directly across Cherry Street from today’s courthouse was constructed using slave labor in 1858 and housed county offices until 1940. Eva W. Davis obtained the use of the building shortly afterward and converted it into the home of the Old Court House Museum Eva W. Davis Memorial.

It is a National Landmark, one of few in Mississippi, and attracts thousands of visitors downtown every year.

In July, bids were also opened for the roof, stucco and other exterior work, but the lowest offer was for nearly $920,000, far above the $624,764 the county has in hand for the work. Part of the money came from a $236,000 Mississippi Community Heritage Preservation grant from the Department of Archives and History; $47,000 from the county general fund and $341,764 from the county’s share of the 3.2 percent share of local taxes imposed on the four local casinos.

It was then that supervisors decided to trim the work to essentials and seek new bids.

Although no one appeared at the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant hearing, Pace explained the local grant will be for $31,304 with a local match of $3,478 for a total of $34,782.

He said the committee recommended the money be spent to buy and equip two vehicles for use by the two deputies who serve civil court papers.

“This will take care of civil court service for years to come” because they will have new cars instead of hand-me-downs from patrol deputies, Pace said.

In other activity the board:

Received the final orders from the Mississippi Tax Commission, approving 10-year tax exemptions for Calsonic Kansei and Yorozu Automotive Mississippi, the two tier one suppliers for the Nissan plant in Canton which are located at the Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex. The Calsonic exemption is on $11,146,481 and the Yorozu exemption is on $3,983,505. The exemptions are for only county property taxes and the companies must still pay state taxes and school taxes.

Approved advertisement for bids on asbestos abatement on a floor replacement project at the Warren County Vicksburg Public Library.

Approved the application for a Community Development Block Grant for up to $120,000 to extend an access road at Ceres to accommodate the expansion of Union Corrugated that will create 20-25 new jobs.