Vicksburg officials are making it a little easier for contractors to bid on city projects by extending the deadline to turn in proposals.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Monday to move the time that bid packets are due from 5 p.m. Fridays to 9:30 a.m. Mondays before the bids are publicly opened. All bids will still have to be stamped “received” in the City Clerk’s Office and are still subject to the usual bid processes.

“I think it would be a great improvement,” said Lewis Miller of Riverside Construction. “Most everywhere else you go, it’s 10 o’clock now.”

Warren County sets the deadline for most bids at 10 a.m. on the day they are opened.

The city had changed its due date and time to the Friday before about five years ago because of problems with bids being sent by mail or parcel service and arriving later than 10. FedEx, UPS and other services usually do not deliver at City Hall until around 10:30, according to the City Clerk’s Office.

Mayor Laurence Leyens, who recommended the change, said moving the due date will give contractors two more days to prepare their bid packages. He also said the city won’t be responsible for what time the mail runs.

“(The bid packets) are either there or they’re not,” Leyens said.

In other matters the city board: