NATCHEZ &045; City Engineer David Gardner said his office has given Camo Construction of Vidalia a notice to start improvements to Minor Street and surrounding streets, from drainage work to widening Minor Street.

&uot;We’ve given them a notice to proceed Š July 1,&uot; Gardner said.

Ground was broken last week for the project. The notice to proceed was given after a preconstruction meeting with Gardner’s office and Camo Construction.

Also during Tuesday’s aldermen meeting, City Attorney Walter Brown notified aldermen the Attorney General’s Office has approved an interlocal agreement consolidating Natchez Waterworks and the city’s Engineering Department.

The City Engineer’s Office and Natchez Waterworks is being consolidated into one department, with City Engineer David Gardner in charge of both.

The consolidation is being done through an interlocal agreement between Natchez Waterworks and the city, pending approval of the agreement by the Attorney General’s Office.

Until that agreement, the city will pay the Natchez Waterworks Engineering Department $218,794 for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 to cover the cost of performing engineering services for the city.

According to the ILA, that would include compensation for all engineering personnel, including Gardner.

Regarding the chain of command, Gardner will be responsible to the Waterworks Board on waterworks matters but to Mayor Phillip West and the Board of Aldermen on other engineering projects, Ransom said.

In other business:

4City Attorney Walter Brown notified the board that the Attorney General’s Office has approved an interlocal agreement consolidating Natchez Waterworks and the city’s Engineering Department.

In addition, Brown said an agreement for the city to use the ballfields at Covington Road Church of Christ has been extended for another three years. Under that agreement, the city maintains the fields but doesn’t pay for using them.

4Aldermen approved an ordinance rezoning more than six acres of highway-front land on U.S. 61 South from I-1 (industrial) to B-2 (business).

The parcel lies in front of the cleared-off parcel to which Stine Lumber is moving. Developers plan to court smaller businesses to the parcel rezoned Tuesday.

4City officials honored the Natchez National Historical Park as Business of the Month.

Mayor Phillip West noted the park’s latest efforts include expanding hours at the newly opened William Johnson House to seven days a week and continuing work at the Fort Rosalie site.

The park has 22 employees skilled in historic research and presentation, West noted.

4Veterans Service Officer Erle Drane presented the city and several businesses with Department of Defense certificates thanking them for supporting employees in the National Guard and Reserve.

4Aldermen voted for city crews to cut grass at 10 unkempt lots, including two properties they deemed to be emergencies, and to charge the cost of those cleanups against the property owners’ taxes.

4Ronnie Ivey, operations director for the Public Works Department, reminded the public not to blow or sweep grass, leaves or other debris into the street, where the debris clogs up storm drains.

4Aldermen approved a $5,300 change order to add rock to an erosion control project on Bluebird Drive, closing out the project.