By Josh Bergeron

VIDALIA — Vidalia residents may soon spend their afternoons sunbathing on a beach on the grounds of the city’s newly constructed municipal complex.

The Vidalia Board of Aldermen awarded Womack and Sons Construction the contract for the second phase of William T. Polk City Park Tuesday. The city will pay Womack and Sons $292,700 to complete the second phase, which includes volleyball courts, badminton courts, a pond and a beach.

The second phase will also add a walking trail around the pond and extend the concessions area to make room for organizational meetings.

Womack and Sons also completed the first phase of construction. The next highest bid for the second phase came from Camo Construction at approximately $360,000.

“It is going to be a great park for all ages,” said Mayor Hyram Copeland. “We are looking to make it a center of activity for the city.”

The board also approved several other engineering projects.

The first project will improve a road leading to Riverview RV Park.

“The corps did levee work and had to remove the road during construction,” Copeland said. “They went back and put dirt in, but more work needs to be done.”

The other engineering projects include improvements around the municipal complex. The improvements will add an alternate access road, an additional parking lot and a turn lane.

Copeland said the results of a survey by the Department of Transportation suggested adding a red light in front of the municipal complex.

“We have over 2.1 million in the sales tax fund,” he said. “The money is specifically for streets and road drainage. There is ample money in the account to take care of all of these.”

In other news from the meeting:

-The board discussed plans for a Vidalia recycling program. Copeland suggested the program start on July 1. The program will initially not include the entire city, but may expand to all residents of Vidalia.

-The board approved a measure to ban trucks from waiting on Louisiana 131 during harvest season.

Trucks often stall traffic while waiting to get to the grain elevator in the industrial park, Copeland said. The measure will lease land to Bunge near the industrial park for $3,000 per year to help remove trucks from the road while waiting.