[07/11/02]A second state grant has been awarded to Vicksburg to fund part of the cost of a third mural on the City Front floodwall.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen accepted a $6,350 grant Wednesday from the Mississippi Arts Commission for the project. The next mural will feature the city’s founder, the Rev. Newitt Vick, a Methodist minister, and have other images of the city’s 1825 founding.

Those state funds will be combined with $8,650 from the city to fund the painting under the direction of Louisiana artist Robert Dafford. Dafford completed the wall’s second mural in April.

No date has been set for the work because a city committee is looking to find sponsors for other murals and will schedule the work when four can be done at a time, Mayor Laurence Leyens said.

Ergon Inc. sponsored the second mural which includes a depiction of the Belle of the Bends steamboat. In 2001, a city committee selected a work by Vicksburg artist Martha Ferris to go on one section of the wall.

The floodwall runs parallel to the Yazoo Diversion Canal just west of downtown. Before any mural project can begin, a rendering of the design must be approved by the city’s architectural review board and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

In total, plans are to paint 14 murals along the floodwall.

In other matters the board:

Presented a key to the city to Frances Koury for her work organizing the Fourth of July celebration.

Presented a certificate of recognition to Dalton McCarty.

Approved a $100 ad for the Vicksburg-Warren County Chapter of the Jackson State University National Alumni Association.

Approved a $100 ad for the Vicksburg Diamond Dolls Fast Pitch Softball Team, which will compete in the ASA National Tournament.

Adopted an ordinance that will require commercial parking lots with more than five spaces to have landscaping.

Approved a $2,000 allocation to We Care Community Services.

Received bids for sidewalk improvements on Clay Street.

Approved the claims docket.

Approved the minutes from the May 20 city board meeting and the May 24 meeting.

The city board will meet again at 10 a.m. Monday at City Hall Annex.