A floor-to-ceiling renovation of 150 apartments and 27 buildings at Waltersville Estates will get under way in about a month following Tuesday’s approval of a contract by the Vicksburg Housing Authority Board of Commissioners for a large portion of the federally funded work.

On the agenda

Meeting Tuesday, VHA commissioners:

• OK’d meeting minutes from Nov. 17 and bills paid from October, November and December.

• OK’d a two-year contract with Scallions’ Landscaping of Vicksburg for grass-cutting at all six VHA subdivisions. 

• OK’d adding two to the five existing maintenance positions.

• OK’d revising the VHA organizational chart and position descriptions.

• OK’d irreparable surplus.

The board will meet again on Feb. 16.

The VHA was awarded $888,780 last spring through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the stimulus package. The housing authority has until March 17 to obligate the funds, all of which VHA Executive Director Dannie Walker has dedicated to Waltersville Estates — one of six subdivisions managed by the VHA.

“The bids came in considerably less than we had anticipated,” Walker told the five-member board of commissioners Tuesday. “For the work we were planning to do, the architect estimated it to be around $700,000. When the bids came in, the lowest and best bidder was at $436,189.”

The low bid, one of seven received in total, was submitted by Bruce Massey Construction of Oxford, and the commission unanimously approved the contract on Walker’s recommendation. The contract will cover the reroofing of all 27 buildings at Waltersville Estates, as well as repairs to damaged fascia boards and dormers.

“Hopefully this will end our plague of leaks and Sheetrock issues and termite issues,” said Commission Chairman Jay Kilroy. 

The commission on Tuesday also approved a change order to the contract with Massey to further obligate $141,373 of the remaining stimulus funds, which will cover added insulation, exterior painting and some interior painting of apartment ceilings damaged by leaky roofs.

Walker has put out a request for proposals to obligate the remaining $311,308 in stimulus funds, which will go toward replacing all windows and bathroom vanities at Waltersville, as well as taking down the razor wire-topped chain-link fence that splits the gated community in two. The architect estimate for the work is $221,875, and the bids will be opened at VHA executive offices, 113 Elizabeth Circle, on Feb. 11 at 2 p.m.

The VHA must obligate 90 percent of the stimulus funds, said Walker, and the rest can be retained for administrative fees. He estimated the work at Waltersville likely will begin the second week of February and take four to five months. 

Commissioners present Tuesday were Kilroy, Abraham Green, Charles Wright, Christopher Barnett and John Ferguson, who sat in on his first monthly meeting after being appointed to the commission earlier this month by the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com