[2/12/04]Vicksburg officials will divide plans for a downtown art park into phases and seek new bids in hopes of bringing the costs down.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Wednesday to reject bids opened early this week that were nearly double what engineers had estimated for the project. The lowest bid had been $3.9 million from a company in Vidalia, La. The project estimate was $2.3 million.

“We’re going to get it back into the budget,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

The plan includes a steamboat playground with interactive displays showing the history of river transportation, a pilot house, bells and other steamboat-related features. Other improvements will be a public bathroom, benches and landscaping.

Officials hope that by breaking the project into phases, landscapers will be able to bid just on the landscaping, for example, and the total cost might be lower. They also are looking at reducing the project’s size.

“It’s going to have to be scaled back somewhat I think,” said South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman.

The project area is between Grove and Clay streets along Levee Street. Work was expected to begin this spring and be completed by July.

That area today is across railroad tracks from the City Front murals and is vacant since the removal of the former McGuffie Steel building. The parts from the sternwheeler Sprague are also kept there and are expected to be incorporated into the park.

Plans for downtown near the park also include a railroad museum at the former Levee Street Depot, which the city has already purchased from a private owner, and an amphitheater between Washington and Levee streets. The depot restoration began earlier this year, but plans for the amphitheater are on hold because of a pending eminent domain case over property at Jackson and Levee streets.

The park project will be funded from the $17.5 million bond issue the administration authorized in November 2001. In September, the city wrapped up a $2.6 million reconstruction of downtown Washington Street, and the $5.6 million urban renewal project is ongoing.