County Gives Army Corps of Engineers the Ax
Posted on: Wednesday, 14 December 2005, 00:00 CST
By Karen Nelson, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.
Dec. 13--PASCAGOULA -- A majority of the Jackson County Board of Supervisors voted Monday to fire the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the debris removal contractor for the county and request proposals from local contractors.
Two of the five supervisors were not at the meeting, but board President Manly Barton said he believes that is not a problem.
The Coast has until the middle of January to get Katrina debris cleaned up with FEMA paying 100 percent of the cost. After that, the county and state will pick up 25 percent of the tab.
Barton said the issue of entering private property to remove debris was a main sticking point with the corps, and the county hopes to get it done more quickly with a local contractor or contractors.
He said the corps was dragging out the process of entering private property to demolish and remove houses and other debris.
The corps has handled the bulk of roadside debris in Jackson County since the storm. The corps told supervisors last week that it had picked up 90 percent of the debris in the county rights of way.
Barton said the county will terminate the agreement with the corps and go out on its own Friday. The county plans to have a request for bids to local contractors today.
Barton said that some subcontractors with Ashbritt, the contractor that the corps hired to clean up Jackson County, would be capable of handling the job as would other contractors on the Coast.
He pointed out that Harrison County and Biloxi hired their own contractors for debris cleanup. The difference with hiring local contractors is that the county would have to pay the company or companies and then be reimbursed by the state and FEMA. With the corps there was no cost to the county.
Barton said that the county plans to tackle the problem of slow state and federal reimbursements with better communication.
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Source: The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)
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