The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Monday approved a request from Stantec to hire Ridgeland-based engineers Burns Cooley Dennis as a subcontractor for repairs to erosion areas at Riverfront Park.

Stantec was hired by the board in April as the project engineer to repair four slide areas — two on the riverbank and two on the Washington Street side of the park that block parts of the park’s entrance road.

The slides occurred after heavy rains hit Warren County in January and April 2020. The repairs are being funded, in part, by a Federal Emergency Management Agency emergency grant.

City Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said Burns Cooley Dennis, which has experience in geotechnical engineering, will take soil borings at the park “and help with the design of what they (Stantec) do to fix it.”

The cost to repair the slides is estimated at $664,585 and the work has been approved for emergency grants from FEMA and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

The FEMA grant is a reimbursement grant covering 75 percent of the project’s eligible costs, which means the city will pay for the repairs and be reimbursed by FEMA. The city’s match is 25 percent, which will be split between MEMA, the city, and Warren County.

The city and the county have an agreement to share repair and maintenance costs for the park.

The board in March approved borrowing up to $4 million to begin repairs to the problems at Riverfront Park and six other slide areas damaged during the severe rains. The loan will be repaid using the FEMA reimbursements.