McComb officials awarded two contracts Friday to start debris cleanup from the tornado and straight-line wind damage on May 9.
The board of selectmen accepted bids from Debris Tech, based in Atlanta, for debris monitoring, and from Land Company Development Inc. in Magnolia for debris removal and disposal.
Debris Tech is a sister company of Dungan Engineering, which is based in Columbia and recently opened an office in McComb.
The company bid an hourly rate, not to exceed $150,000 total, for the job. City Administrator Kelvin Butler did not have the hourly amount available when contacted Tuesday.
Debris Tech beat out Metric Engineering, a company with 16 offices, all in Florida.
A representative of True North addressed the board on May 14 and offered its monitoring services, but the company did not submit a bid. True North is affiliated with Neel-Schaffer engineering firm, which also has an office in McComb and which serves as the official engineering firm for the city and Pike County.
Land Company Development was one of five firms that submitted a bid for storm debris pickup and disposal. Its bid was $3,150,250, including a disposal cost not to exceed $500,000.
Also submitting bids were Look Great Services of Columbia, DRC Emergency Services of Galveston, Texas, TFR Enterprises of Leander, Texas, and Creel Brothers Inc. of Franklinton, La.
The bids “were based on hypotheticals,” Butler said. “We hope those costs will end up being a lot lower than that. We just don’t know yet how much will be picked up and how long it will take.”
Mayor Quordiniah Lockley, in calling the special meeting Friday, said it would benefit the city to award the contracts and get the companies working before the regular meeting on Tuesday.
He said Wednesday that the contracts had not been executed, but he hoped they would be that day. No work has been started under that contracts.
