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.
“I’m just so fed up with the delays,”commissioner Ray Wade said.
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.
“This 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.
“That’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.