South Broad Street will be getting a facelift from Myrtle Hill Cemetery to Cedar Avenue.

The Rome City Commission awarded a $1,154.455.90 streetscape contract Monday to low-bidder Site Technologies Inc. City Manager John Bennett estimated the work will take about a year to complete.

The 2006 special purpose, local option sales tax package contained $2 million for pedestrian improvements — repairs and upgrades on the curb and gutter, sidewalks and lighting.

Relocating some of the utilities underground also is part of the project, which starts at the Charles W. Graves Bridge.

Commissioner Jamie Doss abstained from the 6-0 vote because he owns property along the corridor. Commissioner Evie McNiece had an excused absence from the meeting and Mayor Wright Bagby Jr. votes only to break a tie.

Bennett told the board he expects to recommend a replacement at the June 21 meeting for former municipal court judge Gene Richardson, who stepped down to become chief magistrate court judge for the county.

Local attorneys may call him or send a resume if they are interested, Bennett said.

This will be the city’s fifth municipal court judge in eight years. Richardson succeeded Bryant Durham, who is now a Floyd County Superior Court judge.

At the start of the Monday commission meeting, the board received a City of Rome flag that flew over the field bases of a troop made up of area Georgia National Guardsmen who returned home in March after a year in Afghanistan.

Col. Reginald Neal, commander of the 118th Field Artillery Regiment, introduced Capt. Nathaniel C. Stone, leader of Company A, 108th Cavalry.

Stone said the unit saw more combat in the first five months than the rest of the brigade combined.

“It’s a testament to the strength of the men from this part of the state,” he said. “They fought hard and they fought well.”

In other actions, the board:

Approved a rezoning to allow a 50-unit gated apartment complex to be built on a Chateau Drive tract west of Twickenham Estates subdivision. The property is 35 acres but the development is limited to a maximum of seven acres.

Closed the part of North Fourth Avenue that bisects the former Hight Homes public housing complex. Commissioner Buzz Wachsteter said unifying the two halves of the tract will make it ripe for redevelopment.

Approved high-density traditional residential zoning for an existing house at 428 Cedar Ave. and a Habit for Humanity project at 505 W. 13th St.

Issued a proclamation declaring June 21-27 Amateur Radio Week in Rome. The Northwest Georgia Emergency Radio Club is holding an emergency preparedness exercise that week at the National Guard Armory on Wilshire Road.