[6/29/03]Control of Vicksburg Municipal Airport is expected to be returned to the city Tuesday when an injunction that kept it open and in private hands since litigation began in 1998 is lifted.

As that date nears, Vicksburg officials said last week that building a third airport may be their solution to economic, political and legal issues and entanglements that date to 1983.

It was that year a study showed major improvements were needed at Vicksburg Municipal. The culmination of that study was a decision to build, instead, at Mound, La. Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional was constructed with 90 percent of the $6 million construction cost funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, and it remains in operation today, supported by its own income and small subsidies from Vicksburg, Tallulah, Madison Parish and Warren County, who own equal shares.

After VTR was opened, members of the city board voted 2-1 to close Vicksburg Municipal on U.S. 61 South. That triggered lawsuits from a group of 18 municipal airport users, and their suits triggered countersuits. Circuit Judge Frank Vollor decreed that the plaintiffs could operate the city airport at their own expense for the duration of the litigation, and they have. But the Supreme Court validated the city’s power to close its airport, set the July 1 date for Vollor’s order to expire and left today’s mayor and aldermen with choices. Options they are looking at include:

Lease or sell the airport to the 18 industrialists and businessmen who sued the city to keep the airport open or others.

Close the airport and convert the land to other uses.

Take over operation of the airport, assume the liability and face the consequences of a study that says the 55-year-old airport needs $3.3 million worth of improvements.

In what might be a temporary measure, the city board voted last week to enter a month-to-month contract with Frank May, one of the plaintiffs who has been managing the airport since 1999, to continue running the facility. Under terms of the contract, May will pay the city $850 per month, and the contract can be terminated after giving a 30-day notice.

City officials say the agreement will give them time to work out plans for the airport while giving the businesses who use that facility time to consider alternatives.

“Why do we want to keep throwing good money at bad with the old airport?” asked Mayor Laurence Leyens.

Instead, city officials say they want to look at a joint venture with Warren and Hinds counties to build a $28 million cargo airport near Ceres Research and Industrial Park. Leyens said that with the railroad nearby, the interstate and industrial park, there is infrastructure in place for the airport and room to grow.

Today, five industries operate at the industrial park, including two Nissan suppliers and a new Mississippi National Guard Armory.

It is not clear how many of those industries rely on air transportation, but Bob Croisdale, general manager of Calsonic Kansei Mississippi, said a new airport would be useful only if it could land bigger planes.

“One of the reasons we located in Vicksburg was the availability of two airports,” Croisdale said. “We use both (Vicksburg Tallulah Regional) and Vicksburg (Municipal), and they are very satisfactory.”

Donald Cross, vice president of Vicksburg Marine LeTourneau Inc., which is minutes away from the municipal airport, said an airport at Ceres would not be as efficient for LeTourneau, but that he would not oppose growth in Vicksburg and Warren County.

“If it shows with a study it’s good for Vicksburg, then I’m all for it, but if it’s about someone’s ego wanting to spend $28 million to put their name on it, then no,” Cross said.

LeTourneau was one of the businesses that sued to keep the municipal airport open and has been investing money to keep that airport open since. Cross said LeTourneau, which builds offshore oil rigs, has an average of three flights a week at the municipal airport.

“We’d like to have the airport right where it is now,” he said.

Warren County supervisors say they have been approached about a proposed airport at Ceres, but more information is needed before deciding if they will support funding a feasibility study.