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NATCHEZ — Don Barron Contractor of Farmerville, Louisiana, submitted the lowest bid of $20,700,000 and will build the Natchez Adams School District’s new high school.

The Natchez Adams School District Board of Trustees unanimously awarded the bid to build the new Natchez High School during a special-called meeting Tuesday.

Barron Contractor was approximately $300,000 below the budgeted amount for the new school, architect William McElroy said during Tuesday’s meeting.

District officials plan to build the new high school in the “bean field” adjacent to the current Natchez High School campus and renovate the existing high school to house middle school students.

The project is being financed through a combination of a 3 mil tax levy and Trust Certificates.

The Board of Trustees received bids from 11 different contractors, with the next lowest of bid being $20,870,000 from and the highest being $23,289,000.

“We are extremely excited about the bid participation,” McElroy said.

Don Barron Contractor is currently at work on the Monterey High School Gym in Concordia Parish and has also worked on the Union Parish High School and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Monroe, Louisiana.

The board awarded the contract to Don Barron unanimously.

“It has been a pleasure working with you all because you understand … dollars and cents,” Superintendent Fred Butcher said to the company’s representatives at Tuesday’s meeting. “I think you’ve tried to the best of your ability to keep us within the dollars that have been allotted to this project while at the same time making sure that we have a high-quality project.”

Other bidders on the project include:

* Thrash Commercial Contractors of Brandon for $20,870,000

* Century Construction of Tupelo for $21,299,000

* Paul Jackson and Sons of Brookhaven for $21,300,000

* Aliant Construction of Jackson for $21,420,000

* Chris Woods Construction of Memphis for $22,055,000

* Hanco Corporation of Hattiesburg for $22,123,000

* Flagstar Construction of Brandon for $22,340,000

* Codaray Construction of Hattiesburg for $22,945,800

* Mann’s Construction of West Monroe for $22,999,000

* Mid State Construction of Jackson for $23,289,000