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NATCHEZ — Natchez Public Works Director Justin Dollar announced that the paving project repair and completion on Canal and Homochitto streets will resume in late April and early May.

The city had been at a standstill with contractors on that project after discovering in late December that a batch of asphalt applied to Homochitto Street was faulty and not adhering to the roadway.

At the same time, questions about the quality of the work on Canal Street arose when an inspection revealed ripples in the paving and other deficiencies in the project.

Until recently, it was thought that the issue would require litigation with the contractors to get the work corrected and completed. However, Dollar told the Natchez Mayor and Board of Aldermen at its Tuesday morning meeting that all parties have agreed to complete the work.

“We submitted a report to them (general contractor Theobald Contracting and APAC Asphalt) with our findings, which included the deficiencies in visual appearance and density reports. They gave us no indications of any objections to that report and we are looking at the last week of April and the first week of May to get started again,” Dollar said.

“That’s great news,” Gibson said. “I want to underscore the fact that this is at no additional cost to the city. We have on numerous occasions informed the public on the challenges of this project. Without litigation, I am excited we can move forward in an amicable manner with the project and at the same time making sure the project is what Natchez expects and deserves.”

Gibson thanked Justin Dollar for his work to bring the issues to a successful conclusion.

“Justin Dollar never let up on the fact that the ultimate job has to be the best job we can get for the citizens of Natchez,” he said.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Tuwanna Williams, the city and county workforce development director, sought and received permission to apply for a grant worth more than $1 million from Central Mississippi Planning and Development. If awarded, the grant would go toward the city and county’s building trades program.

Williams said the grant would require no match from the city and that the granting agency contacted her to urge her to apply.

“It would allow us to run electrical, plumbing and masonry instruction,” she said. “We are operating a building trades program now at Co-Lin, but we are running out of room.”

In addition, the workforce development program recently received a $300,000 grant, which Williams said is to offer job training to dislocated workers and veterans.

In his mayor’s report, Gibson asked for a motion to appoint Natchez Attorney Terrance Hunter as interim public defender, replacing Eileen Maher, who resigned effective last Monday. That motion passed.

At the end of the meeting, the aldermen held a closed session to interview three candidates for the municipal court judge position. Christina Daugherty recently resigned from that position to become an assistant district attorney in District Attorney Tim Cotton’s office.

She will continue to serve until the end of this month.

Gibson said four people applied for the interim judge position, but one withdrew from consideration. That left candidates J. Pierce Beach, Timothy Blalock, and Hunter, all Natchez attorneys, to interview in the closed session.