The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors decided in a 4-1 vote Monday to hire Mike Slaughter & Associates to bring the 2008 comprehensive plan up to date.

Slaughter & Associates, which has an extensive history of developing and updating comprehensive plans for governments all over the state, earned the right to update the county’s plan over A2H, which was also a finalist for the job.

Slaughter & Associates submitted a bid of $60,000 to update the county comprehensive plan and for an additional $10,000 to $20,000, owner Mike Slaughter has indicated he could develop a zoning ordinance if the county decides to pursue zoning.

“I think Mr. Slaughter will do an excellent job for this county. It didn’t boil down to money,” said board president Jeff Busby. “It basically boiled down to who we thought had the best plan. We all felt comfortable that Mr. Slaughter, after looking at some of his plans from other places within the state of Mississippi, we felt like he was qualified for this job.”

Supervisor Kevin Frye was the lone dissenting vote.

A2H had submitted a bid of $57,000 to update the comprehensive plan, in addition the firm indicated they could create a zoning ordinance for $40,000 and an implementation plan for another $30,000. The total cost would carry a price tag of $137,000.

In previous meetings with supervisors, Slaughter said he could have the comprehensive plan completed in six months.

Slaughter also has previously said he favors the county creating a zoning plan to accompany the comprehensive plan.

“It may be a large portion of the county will be zoned agriculture use. But the way I look at zoning is it’s an ordinance telling my neighbor what they can or cannot do with their property, rather than what I can do with my property,” Slaughter told supervisors during a public hearing on the comprehensive plan last week.

In coming weeks, public meetings are expected to be set in order to gather community input on the comprehensive plan.