City Council approves fences at 8th Street Cemetery
During Tuesday’s meeting of the Picayune City Council, the council agreed to put a fence at the 8th Street Cemetery based on a recommendation from the Cemetery Board that was presented to the council members by Public Works Director Eric Morris.
According to Morris, the fence will be constructed as a four feet high chain link fence with a black vinyl coating. The plan calls for the fence to be installed on both sides of the street, which is the front of the cemeteries. Morris said the woods on the sides of the cemetery will act as a barrier to keep vehicular traffic from entering the cemetery on the sides.
Morris said there will be five estate style, double gates with black powder coating at the main entrances. The north side of the fence will cover approximately 1,500 linear feet of fencing and the south side will be just under 700 linear feet. The cost of the project, according to the quote referenced by Morris during his presentation to the council, is $30,944.25.
Pictures above of what the fence and gates will be for the 8th Street project
The council voted unanimously to move forward with the project. Morris stated later in the meeting that the project will begin immediately as he plans to create a purchase order on Wednesday. Morris added that the public could expect to see things begin to happen on the fence in as soon as 30 days.
The fence at 8th Street Cemetery appeared to satisfy a request made by councilman Larry Breland who for nearly a year has been adamant that he would not accept a chain link fence, but instead insisted on numerous occasions that he wanted a fence like the one constructed at New Palestine Cemetery which is constructed of wrought iron to be installed at 8th street.
City Mgr Jim Luke, Mayor Ed Pinero, Council members Tammy Valente & Larry Breland.
Also in regards to cemeteries, councilman Wayne Gouguet asked City Clerk Amber Hinton to look into the current cost of burial plots at the 8th Street and the Old and New Palestine Cemetery. Gouguet said the that current costs of $100.00 at 8th Street and $200.00 at two Palestine cemeteries is too low and he suggest the possibility of raising the costs for each. Gouguet stated that he has heard of people buying as many as 20 plots and tying up spaces. Hinton replied to Gouguet's stating "there has not been a rate increase in several years".
The council approved to accept a request from the City Engineer’s office's Jonathan Hickman to accept a grant offer from the FAA for the Picayune Airport Taxiway Construction in the amount of $825,707.00, and to award the Lowest and Best Bid for the project to Huey P. Stockstill, LLC in the amount of $841,589.00.
Hickman told the council that the project involved a 90-5-5 split in cost sharing.
Hickman stated, "After the grant from the FAA is applied from federal money, the state and the city (Picayune) will each be responsible for $45,872.50 of the total cost."
When asked by councilman Breland where this funding would come from, Ms. Hinton reminded Breland that "the city has carried funding for this project over from a number of years".
Also during the meeting, the council approved the appointment of Mr. Quinn Houchen to the Pearl River County Utility Authority to replace Mike Pind, who recently resigned from the utility board. Houchen is the Chief Financial Officer for the National Oceans and Applications Research Center (NOARC) and has over 35 years of accounting experience as well as accounting degree from William Carey University.
