Bridge panel to seek funds for bridge park|[12/17/05]

Published 12:00 am Monday, December 19, 2005

Following a soft directive from the Warren County Board of Supervisors, the Vicksburg Bridge Commission voted Friday to pursue federal funding toward placing a pedestrian trail and park on the U.S. 80 Bridge across the Mississippi River.

The commission voted to proceed after resuming a Wednesday meeting, with all agreeing the issue needed action.

&#8220I’m just so fed up with the delays,”commissioner Ray Wade said.

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The $50 million grant money will be sought through the Mississippi Department of Transportation and, if approved, will originate from a $244.1 billion highway enhancement bill passed by Congress and signed by the President in August.

&#8220This is supposed to be unemotional, but there are some political and historical aspects here,” commissioner Robert Moss said.

Any such grant application by the county-appointed commission would need a sign-off from the Board of Supervisors, which has indicated no unified position on the future of the 75-year-old bridge, closed to vehicular traffic since 1998.

Commissioner Moss and the board’s attorney, Bobby Bailess, met with supervisors Thursday, and an uncertain board left all options open. That includes a possible sale of the bridge to Kansas City Southern Railway, which holds a lease to run trains on the span, to pay for a new jail or a courthouse annex.

&#8220That’s what they’ve wanted the whole time,” Wade said.

Supervisors have said a new jail and a courthouse annex would cost at least $20 million.

KCS last offered to purchase the bridge in 1997 for $5.5 million. After a nonbinding, countywide vote that called for reopening the bridge to traffic, supervisors dropped the idea of selling it.

In recent statements, KCS has reiterated interest in purchasing it but vehemently opposed a park on the bridge, calling it a safety risk.

The approved action, offered by commissioner Winkie Freeman and seconded by Wade, was amended to designate Jimmy G. Gouras Urban Planning Consultants, Inc. to write the grant and a park feasibility study be continued by ABMB Engineers.

Paperwork involved in writing the grant may take up to a month, Moss said during the meeting, with the deadline for submission in March.

In other business, the commission approved for placement on their claims docket $1.5 million in repair work to various sections of tracking and guard rails, while contesting $210,000 in invoices from KCS that the board deemed inaccurate.