NATCHEZ — The city is moving closer to a start date for the overlay of downtown streets using stimulus money.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation awarded the city $662,000 in stimulus funds, and a list of shovel-ready roads have been approved.

The downtown central business district roads will get a new coat of asphalt, but the city has to take a few more steps before that can happen, City Engineer David Gardner said.

He said the board has to essentially give its approval to do the stimulus overlay at its next regular meeting on Tuesday.

The vote will be spread in the minutes, and the minutes will be sent to MDOT, Gardner said.

“I don’t anticipate any problem with that, it’s just a formality of getting those minutes over to MDOT,” he said.

At the beginning of the discussion among the board on which roads to include in the project, Alderman Dan Dillard wanted to include a portion of Melrose Avenue from Ratcliffe Place to Roselawn Avenue.

That portion was included and approved, but at the last board meeting this month, Alderman James “Ricky” Gray said he was worried about the cost and wanted one road taken away since one was added.

“We need to start living within our means,” he said.

Dillard made a motion to remove State Street from the list of approved roads.

He said if it looks like the city is going to go over the $662,000 budget, State should be the first street to be cut out.

If the project costs more than the $662,000 budget, it’s the city’s responsibility to pay for the overage.

The approval for overlay work includes:

– Canal Street from Jefferson to Madison streets

– State Street from Broadway to Pearl streets

– Pearl Street from State to Jefferson streets

– Commerce Street from Orleans to Jefferson streets

– Rankin Street from Orleans to Jefferson streets

– Washington Street from Broadway to Martin Luther King Jr. streets

– Melrose Avenue from Ratcliffe Place to Roselawn Avenue.

Dillard requested that State Street from Broadway to Pearl streets be removed.

“If anyone in Natchez drives State Street from Broadway to Pearl, they’ll realize that it’s by far in much better shape than the tenth of a mile on Melrose that I’m trying to include in this project,” Dillard said in his motion.

The board voted in favor of the motion, but Gardner said that is not allowable.

He said the list of roads has already been approved by MDOT, and the board can’t go back and change the list.

“They’re going to have to go back to the original language and approve it,” Gardner said. “We’ve already talked to board members about that, and it was indicated to me that it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Once MDOT is sent the city’s approval of the project and MDOT approves the city’s plans and specifications, the city will then advertise for bids, Gardner said.

The board will pick which contractor it wants to award the bid to and send it off to MDOT for approval.

Once MDOT approves the bid, the city will award it, and then it will pass the project off to MDOT.

Gardner said this is a different way of handling a project, and he is not sure how soon construction will start.

“I would think it would be fairly soon, like this summer,” he said. “Plus this is a stimulus package, and they’re trying to get the money into the economy quick.

“This project is shovel-ready.”