The Martha Ferris mural will stay, but work will be done to tie City Front’s first mural in with the history-themed murals that came after it.

Peace was made in a Tuesday morning meeting with Mayor Laurence Leyens, Ferris, Vicksburg Riverfront Mural artist Robert Dafford and committee chairman Nellie Caldwell.

&#8220Robert and I are going to meet next week and flesh out some ideas about the best way to frame my mural and set it off in a way that makes Nellie and her committee and everybody happy,” Ferris said.

The idea of repainting the Ferris mural across Levee Street in the new Art Park on Catfish Row to allow a continuous line of Dafford’s murals surfaced at an April 29 meeting of the mural committee.

Caldwell said the volunteer group she’s headed since its inception in 2001 needed a decision from city officials on their intentions so they’d know how many panels of the concrete wall would be available.

When approached, Ferris rejected the idea of re-creating her work elsewhere and about 60 e-mails – sent to Leyens and The Vicksburg Post – appeared in hours. People from Vicksburg and all the way to Australia and England opposed any alteration of the Ferris mural, funded by a Mississippi Arts Commission and City of Vicksburg grant.

Caldwell said Tuesday’s meeting was &#8220very amicable.” She and her committee will continue filling the north floodwall with historical murals painted by Dafford with the exception of Ferris’ four panels.

&#8220We are going to step back and concentrate on our future murals and not dwell on the past,” Caldwell said.

Instead of the 22 murals that were planned for the north floodwall, Caldwell said there will be 18.

Ferris said she was also pleased. No definite design to distinguish her work, which differs sharply in style from Dafford’s, was devised, but she was confident it could be done.

&#8220We talked about putting a frame around my mural that in some way will reflect the art park – maybe paint some smoke stacks,” she said. &#8220We can come up with some good ways. We will work together.”

So far, Dafford and his team have completed 19 murals on the north and south floodwalls. The first phase, which includes 14 murals on the south floodwall, has been completed. Five murals have been completed on the north floodwall with the most recent mural, Two Bridges at Sunset, scheduled for its unveiling at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The Riverfront Mural Committee was created after Dafford’s work was seen on a similar floodwall in Kentucky. Almost all of the murals to date, costing $15,000 each, have been paid for with private donations.

In turn, the City of Vicksburg has lighted them and Leyens said they are an essential part of redevelopment of the area, once the hub of steamboat activity. Additional plans for the area include opening a transportation museum in the Levee Street Depot, building a Corps of Engineers museum and placing the MV Mississippi, the Corps’ retired flagship towboat, in static display for visitors to board and tour.