Work on the city’s auxiliary water line could begin in late July or early August, pending the selection of a contractor to install the line that will run from the city’s water treatment plant on Haining Road to Jackson Street.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen May 18 authorized City Clerk Walter Osborne to advertise for bids on the project.

“We’ve been working on this for at least six years. We’re ready to go,” City Attorney Nancy Thomas said.

She added the bids will be opened July 10.

“If we don’t do nothing else, this will be the most important job we can do in this city, because it will give us some relief if we have a water problem,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield asked Thomas and representatives from project engineers IMS Engineers of Jackson to give the city notice when the project starts, so he and Flaggs can talk with Fort Hill Drive resident about the project.

“This is a great day for Vicksburg,” Flaggs said.

After leaving the water treatment plant, the line will go south along North Washington Street to a point south of Vicksburg National Cemetery, where it will cross the Military Park property to Fort Hill Drive and then to Cherry Street, where it would connect with an existing city line on Jackson Street.

The city still has to get a permit to cross the Vicksburg National Military Park.

The board in June 2014 acquired a six-month permit to cross the park in anticipation of the project starting last summer, but delays, including redesigning the point where the line crosses into the park to avoid a wetlands area, caused the permit to expire Dec. 31.

Park officials recommended the city reapply after the contract is awarded for the project, adding they foresaw no problem getting approval.

Plans for the auxiliary waterline project began in 2010 after a sudden shift in the soil on Washington Street during construction of the Corps’ Lower Mississippi River Museum and Interpretive Center threatened the city’s main 36-inch water line. The line was later relocated.

On November 2010, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen hired IMS to perform the engineering for the project. There had been little action by city officials on the project after IMS’ hiring until November 2013, when Flaggs called a meeting of IMS representatives, city officials, and Corps and National Military Park officials.

Since then, city and park officials and IMS representatives have addressed several issues, including resolving a wetlands problem where the line enters the park through a drainage area for Mint Springs.

In April 2014, city and county officials approved an interlocal agreement that allowed the city take over the maintenance and repair of Fort Hill Drive, clearing the way to run the line south along Fort Hill to connect with the line on Jackson Street.

The agreement was necessary because the street was a county road that was deeded to the county by the National Park Service in 1936.