Five companies submitted bids to cut the grass on 148 vacant properties the city of Vicksburg purchased during flood buyouts.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen took the bids under advisement Friday. They range from $583 to more than $1,800 per cutting, which is the price the contractor will charge each time the lots are cut.

City purchasing director Tim Smith said the properties are in Hamilton Heights, Kings and the Fort Hill area.

He said the company awarded the contract will begin cutting the lots in mid-March and continue cutting them on an as-needed basis.

Submitting bids were:

• Heath Smith, Vicksburg, $582.54.

• Eagle Eye Enterprises, Redwood, $1,212.

• Platinum Lawn Service, Vicksburg, $1,295.

• SKA Lawn Service, Vicksburg, $1,332.

• Baur Corp., Petal, $1,815.80.

In other action, the board:

• Recognized the following employees on their anniversaries: Claude Wright, parks and recreation maintenance, 15 years; Wanda Gentry, gas department, Wanda Davis, police, and Thomas Gardner, vehicle maintenance, 10 years; Andrew Penley, fire department, Darryl Franklin, police department, and Eric Paymon, police department, five years.

• Adopted the minutes of the Dec. 22 and Jan. 3 board meetings.

• Presented trophies to the 2012 Mardi Gras parade and window display winners.

• Awarded a $158,724 bid to Empire Truck Sales of Jackson for a new street sweeper.

• Authorized Mayor pro tem Michael Mayfield to sign a change order with Motorola for rebanding the city’s police and fire frequencies. Motorola is changing the city’s public safety frequencies to prevent problems with cell phone transmissions from Sprint/Nextel from interfering with the radios.

City IT tech Bill Ford said the problem has not adversely affected police and fire radios, and the system will be affected while the changes are made.

• Rescinded a vote made Tuesday to allocate $30,000 to Haven House family shelter and approved a $26,000 allocation to the shelter.

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman said the wrong amount was listed in the earlier request.

• Approved $15,000 to the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation for spring and summer programs.

• Authorized Mayfield to sign a grant agreement for an inventory of homes in the Sky Farm Drive area of the city.

• Approved the use of barricades and traffic control for the Run Thru History on March 3.

• Approved bank statements from Trustmark and BancorpSouth.

• Approved the following reports, city sexton, privilege licenses, mayor and treasurer, monthly tax collection, delinquent tax collection and budget reports.

• Approved the claims dockets.