The Board of Supervisors on Monday voted to advertise again for bids to complete site work for the planned Northwest Aeronautical School at the Panola County Airport after hearing the lowest quote received was more than $200,00 over the engineering estimate.

County officials are more than a year into the development of an aviation school at the airport, a process that has moved slowly because of the partnership between county, state, and federal boards and agencies. 

When completed, the aviation school will be a major economic development driver, and position the local airport, along with Batesville and all of the county, for unprecedented business growth for the area.

Most encouraging to Panola officials is the fact that FAA and MDOT grants, along with a variety of state and federal funding mechanisms, will pay for the majority of construction and renovation. County taxpayers will have relatively little financial investment when the school begins to enroll and train students in all aspects of the aeronautics industry.

This week’s news that just one bid was received for the site work, which includes paving, curbs and gutters, landscaping and a host of other necessary features, was not anticipated, considering that a total of 25 contractors requested bid packages when the work was advertised.

Supervisor Chad Weaver noted that current work demand is high nationwide and many large contracting companies are either too busy to give quotes, or “throw a number out there that is going to be high or higher.”

JM Duncan Inc., of Ripley, submitted a bid of $952,934, in sharp contrast to the $723,000 estimated by Elliot & Britt Engineering, the firm that served as the county’s engineers for 20 years before resigning last month. 

Larry Britt will continue with a select number of projects currently underway and the new engineer, Josh McPherson, is heading new projects. Britt made the bid presentation on Monday, but pointed out that much of the $200,000 overage appeared to be concentrated in a few areas.

Britt has estimated $20,000 for mobilization costs (moving equipment to and from the site), $18,750 for 150 linear feet of slotted drains, $260,000 for about 1,500 tons of hot mix asphalt, and $33,000 for 470 square yards of sidewalk concrete. Instead, those line items were bid at $80,000 for mobilization, $288,000 for asphalt,  $54,000 for concrete, and a shocking $66,000 for the drains.

Those items made up about $150,000 of the $200,000 overage in the received bid. Supervisors agreed to modify the specifications and advertise again.