NATCHEZ — After weeks of talk about how to take care of the grass in medians, the City of Natchez is ready to put its money where its mouth is.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation reduced Natchez’s yearly grass cuttings from six to three in early June, leaving city leaders looking for a way to keep the grass on the medians cut.

City Engineer David Gardner said there were two options: take the three cuttings a year, or get no cuttings from MDOT, and instead take the allotted money — nearly $10,000 — and find a way to maintain it.

The city advertised for quotes from contractors recently, and the board of aldermen decided Tuesday that hiring Jeffrey Ross Industrial Services, of Ferriday, would be their best option.

Getting bids was unnecessary, because according to the Mississippi Code of 1972, which can be viewed at mscode.com, purchases between $3,500 and $15,000 can be exempt from the bidding process.

To mow the medians around the city’s main arteries, like John R. Junkin Drive, Seargent S. Prentiss Drive and D’Evereux Drive, the company gave a quote of $6,900. Other companies gave quotes as high as $25,000.

“(Chemical) spraying, trimming and picking up trash is included,” Gardner said.

However, he said, he’s not sure how many cuttings Natchez has already gotten from MDOT this year. If it’s less than three, the city will get the leftover money from the extra cutting that wasn’t utilized. If MDOT has already cut three times, the city must fund the $6,900 itself.

Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said there’s approximately $6,000 left in the fund for the proposed swimming pool that could be used toward grass cutting, but there was no official vote to transfer those funds.

In the early stages of finding a way to keep the grass cut, Gardner suggested the idea of spraying the medians with an herbicide that would kill both the weeds and the grass. In its place, he said, Bermuda grass would be planted.

“I don’t particularly like to (spray everything),” Gardner said in June. “In the long term, what you want to do is try to kill all of the weeds and just leave the Bermuda grass.”

Alderman Mark Fortenbery wondered whether MDOT could spray the herbicide in the winter.

“I know people don’t want the grass dead,” he said.

But spraying in the winter when the grass is already dead wouldn’t make much of a difference in appearance, Fortenbery said.

Gardner said he’s not sure whether that’s possible, but he’d look into it. A Bermuda grass planting program must also be started, he said.

“Bermuda grass is a variety of grass that grows slower,” he said. “You’d want it to be dominant. It would take some time to get developed, probably a full growing season. It’s a naturally growing vegetation here in this climate, so it doesn’t take a lot to get it established.”

In other news:

— Arceneux-Mathis announced that citizens who live on Madison, Wall and Oak streets have the opportunity to report any problems they may have observed due to the recent work that was done with the drainage project, as phase II-A is wrapping up, she said.

“We want to make sure people who live there are satisfied,” she said. “And we can explain any processes they may have concerns about.”

A meeting for those citizens will take place at 6 p.m. Monday in the Chamber of Commerce.

— Middleton said incidents of vandalism have taken place on the golf course.

For example, Dillard said, vandals have driven their cars onto the course and caused damage to the grass with their car tires.

A citizen and the city have come together to pledge $500 for information that leads the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

“We have a good lead on this, and it would be a lot easier on the individual to come (to us) rather than have the police pick them up.”