City leaders have declared a state of emergency at the main fire station on Washington Street with the building literally falling to pieces in some areas.
The Board of Mayor and Alderman approved the declaration during its open meeting Monday. But even with the state of emergency, the level of work that was presented to the board could lead to trouble with auditors, according to Board Attorney Lilli Evans-Bass.
Mayor David Starling said the main station of the Yazoo City Fire Department, which is housed within the City Hall building, is in dire need of multiple repairs. He said portions of the station’s ceilings are “caving in and bricks are broken.”
“The wall could fall in at any time,” he added.
Alderman Charlie Jenkins was not present at Monday’s meeting, but the remaining board members did approve the emergency declaration.
However, it was the bid for work that was presented to the board that led to Evans-Bass stepping in. The lowest bid Starling presented to the board was in the amount of $630,000.
“You can’t do that much even with an emergency,” Evans-Bass said. “You can’t approve anything of this amount.”
Looking at the proposal, Evans-Bass said the project included signage, roll-up doors and other items that could be seen as non-emergency items. She advised that Wayne Morrison, the city’s engineer, review what could be items that are needed immediately.
“You can call a special meeting to get that approved and then let (Morrison) get an RFP out for the remainder,” she said. “But I think it is going to be really hard to explain to auditors that $600,000 worth of work was needed without going through the purchasing laws.”
Evans-Bass said the board needs to look at what can be done to make the structure “safe immediately.” A separate request for proposals would need to be made for the other non-emergency items. Alderman Jammie McCoy asked what the monetary limit could be for work to be done immediately.
“There isn’t a limit, but we have not had an engineer look at this,” Evans-Bass said. “We are going on what a contractor said.”
Starling said Morrison had visited the property. He added that bricks are falling upon the beds of the firefighters.
“We are concerned about of one of our firemen getting hurt,” he said.
“But we need (Morrison) to tell us what needs to be done on an emergency basis,” Evans-Bass replied. “$600,000 is a lot to not follow purchasing laws. I thought we would be talking about $50,000 to $60,000.”
“With all due respect to you, but a human life…” Starling said.
“I can call the auditor’s office, but that is a lot,” she replied. “We may need to evacuate the space or move them to something temporary.”
