Mayor George Flaggs Jr. hopes a second March visit to Washington, D.C., provides another opportunity to seek federal funding for a new port for Vicksburg on the Mississippi River.

“I’m going to try to get in to make some contacts on lobbying for money for the port,” he said, adding he will attempt to meet with officials at the Department of Transportation, Congress and the Trump administration.

“I’m not promising it (meetings), because it’s kind of late. If I don’t get face-to-face visits, I know I’ll make some telephone calls. That (the new port) is absolutely a No. 1 priority for Mississippi and for Vicksburg,” he said.

Flaggs is in Washington this week attending the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference. He was in Washington last week as a member of a group of Warren County officials and business leaders visiting the state’s congressional delegation, and to also attend the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative Annual Capitol Conference.

He said he’s attending the National League of Cities conference “So I can network and be able to learn from other cities and other mayors what they’re doing in terms of infrastructure and how they’re stimulating their local economy.”

A proposed $125 million multimodal port for Vicksburg was first presented during a February meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump’s infrastructure committee attended by Flaggs and Gov. Phil Bryant.

The plan calls for developing a new port for Vicksburg on the Mississippi River to take advantage of Vicksburg’s location on the river and its access to Interstate 20, U.S. 61, the Vicksburg Airport and Kansas City Southern Railroad.

Flaggs has been one of several city and county officials interested in getting Warren County, the Port of Vicksburg and the Ceres Industrial Park ready for companion industries and suppliers that will serve the proposed Continental Tire Plant expected to be built west of Clinton.

Flaggs has called the new port “a game changer by itself. That’s 500 jobs and creating more opportunities for Vicksburg than ever before, because that’s a whole different port and it’s been thought out what we need in order to become competitive.”

Bryant presented the multimodal port plan to the president’s infrastructure committee.

The multimodal port was revisited March 6 during a visit between city and county officials and the state’s congressional delegation.