By By Adam Prestridge
Atmore residents will soon have more sidewalks to walk and run on, while keeping them safe from oncoming traffic.
Tuesday morning, during the Atmore City Council meeting, which was rescheduled from Monday due to the Veteran's Day holiday, council members approved a $155,093.50 bid from Beasley Construction to pour sidewalks along various roadways within the city.
"This company is under the grant amount that we received from the state for these sidewalks," mayor Howard Shell said during the meeting.
Beasley Construction was the lowest bidder out of 10 companies that bid on the sidewalk project. Other bidders included, Northwest Building Supply &Equipment Rental, Inc. with a bid of $177,760.25; H&H Builders &Contracting, LLC at $182,492.99; Pensacola Concrete Construction Co., Inc., which bid $186,678.45; Milam &Construction, Inc. with a bid of $192,672.29; a bid of $194,586.50 from C. Thornton, Inc.; Cardwell Corporation at $214,805.50; Burnett Civil Contracting, LLC with a bid of $215,868.50; Carter's Contracting Services, Inc., which bid $245,084.50 and a bid of $264,532.25 from The Green-Simmons Co., Inc.
The council also agreed to pay its portion of a $305,000 match grant to acquire property for runway approach at the Atmore Municipal Airport. The city's portion of the airport improvement funding with the State of Alabama is $7,625.
"I think that's a pretty good swap," Shell said.
The funds will not only be used to acquire property, but will also be used for appraisal, negotiation and survey fees. The project will meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) design criteria and Alabama State Licensing requirements.
In other business, the council:
"I want to congratulate him," Shell said. "This is not an easy test to pass and very few do so on the first jump out of the box. We are proud of Bruce for being able to accomplish that."