The City of Vicksburg will spend an additional $18,000 on the $2.6 million downtown art park to get the work back on schedule.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Thursday to approve the contract amendment with Camo Construction of Vidalia, La. The construction of the steamboat park and catfish-themed splash fountain is about 45 days behind schedule due to weather and some soil problems.

“They’re going to start working Saturdays and Sundays to get back on schedule,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

The extra funding provided by the city will help cover the cost for Camo to have 25 employees working weekend shifts at the site adjacent to City Front. Funding is coming out of the $17.5 million bond issue in 2001.

Even with the additional funding the work is still expected to be about 10 days late. The new projected completion date is May 29.

Leyens said he hopes to have some sort of ribbon-cutting ceremony on the last day of school. The children’s park will feature interactive steamboat displays and parts from the Sprague, a record-setting towboat that was a downtown attraction until it burned in its moorings in 1974.

Plans for the art park were proposed over two years ago, but work was delayed after the first set of bids came back more than $1 million over budget. After a second round of bids and cuts from the project that included scaling back designs for a $200,000 bathroom, work was able to begin late last year.

The plan does include a sound system to pipe in sounds from the river and music, a steamboat whistle that will blow every hour during the day and artistic smoke stacks scattered throughout.

The park is at the foot of Clay Street across from the downtown murals and just south of the former Levee Street Depot. Other plans near the park include a proposed railroad museum in the depot and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers interpretive center at the foot of Jackson Street.

The city has also spent about $8.2 million renovating downtown. That work includes $5.6 million on a downtown urban renewal project and $2.6 million for brick paving through the five downtown blocks of Washington Street.