Work on a new splash pad at Catfish Row is underway.

“We’re good to go,” South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour said. “We will have a splash pad sometime this summer.”

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Wednesday in a special called meeting authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to sign an agreement with Planet Recess of Baker, Louisiana, to build the new splash pad at the park for $534,117. Planet Recess owner Treynor McAdams said after the meeting a crew from his company was already at the park.

“We are occupying the property,” he said.

Planet Recess was one of two bidders on the project.

Focus Construction LLC/Millennium Construction LLC, the other bidder on the project, submitted a bid of $450,000 that was rejected on the recommendation of Landscape Services, the Tupelo-based landscape architecture firm hired for the project.

A residential builder, Focus couldn’t work on a project of more than 7,500 square feet, and some of Millennium’s paperwork had expired, according to the architects.

Planet Recess had submitted a bid on the project in March, but it was rejected because the company didn’t follow a state law, which requires out of state bidders to include a copy of their state’s out of state bid law as part of their packet.

The 15-year-old splash pad was a popular and well-used attraction for the city, but was shut down last year for almost one month, from June 30 to July 26, while city workers installed rebuilt pumps and filter motors. It was later demolished because of problems with pad’s pipe system.