Lucille Buck, a security guard with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, reads over some material in the first-floor lobby of the downtown post office. (Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

Heavy brass doors, marble floors and walls, intricate woodwork and high ceilings are a part of the downtown post office now caught in a quagmire of government red tape.

“You don’t get this kind of character in a new building,” said Paul Ponder, who has worked in the 67-year-old structure since 1989 and is a personnel management specialist for the Mississippi Valley Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“There’s no plastic in here,” he said, noting brass window handles and tall baseboards. Ponder also noted that when the building was designed, it was assumed attendants would provide the towels in the restrooms. Towel racks still hang in the bathroom on the fifth floor.

Radiators installed for heat are also still in place and still work.

“Those of us who are still in the building, enjoy it,” Ponder said. “And we are concerned about what’s going to happen to the building.”

The City of Vicksburg is in a waiting period before submitting applications to accept the building, and Mayor Laurence Leyens said Thursday the city expects to own the structure, next door to City Hall but five or six times as large, by the spring.

“We’re working on multiple fronts in terms of acquisition and the ability to redevelop the building in a thoughtful way,” Leyens said.

Because of the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, the federal government is required to make surplus public property available to organizations or groups who help the homeless, said David Clement, city architect.

If no organization is interested in acquiring the building, the city of Vicksburg can continue with the application process.

“No one has expressed an interest in acquiring the building, except us,” Leyens said.

The General Services Administration, which manages real estate and transportation for the federal government, actually owns the five-floor building.

The MVD of the Corps has its main offices in the still-older former post office on the southwest corner of Crawford and Walnut. Some MVD employees occupy offices on the third and fourth floors. A post office with rental boxes and limited window service hours and a museum are located on the first floor. The fifth floor is vacant.

In its heyday, the building had offices for many federal services from U.S. marshals to district courts and their clerks and the National Weather Service.

“We are trying to decide what we’re going to do in the long run,” said Tom Leggett, director of logistics for the MVD of the Corps.

Leyens said at this point he expects tenants in the building will remain. There is no timetable under which the postal operation in the building would be shut down in favor of the U.S. Postal Service facility built on Pemberton Boulevard 10 years ago.

City officials have asked state legislators for a bill that would potentially allow the city to sell or lease the building.

“We simply want to make sure the building is completely occupied, going forward,” Leyens said. “And if an organization or institution is interested in taking over the building, investing money in it and creating jobs, then we want the flexibility to be able to give it to them or at least lease it to them for a long period of time.”

The Western Division of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Mississippi, which has a courtroom and office space on the second floor of the building, will move when renovations are complete at Memorial Hall in Natchez, said Walter Brown, attorney for the city of Natchez.

The GSA funded-renovations are not expected to begin until next year. Cost of the project is expected to be $5 million and funded at state, local and federal levels.