Work should begin soon on the final phase to make residents in parts of south Vicksburg annexed 16 years ago part of the city’s sewer system, city officials said Friday.

At its regular meeting, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously authorized City Clerk Walter Osborne to begin advertising for contractors to lay city sewer pipes in the area of U.S. 61 South and Grange Hall, Redbone and Singing Hills roads near the Warrenton Heights subdivision.

That authorization followed an agreement between the city and the last of 50 property owners along the city right-of-way for an easement to allow work on the private property. The year-long project will serve all of the several hundred residents in the area, said Bubba Rainer, head of the city’s Engineering Department.

&#8220If you’re down there with a house and didn’t get an easement, it doesn’t mean we’re not going to serve you,” Rainer said. &#8220We only got the easements on areas we had to that were on the city right-of-way.”

Based on previous phases, the upcoming work may cost as much as $2 million, but city planner Wayne Mansfield said he wouldn’t cite any specific estimates until potential contracts are submitted. The project will be funded from state money obtained in a grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality about a year ago, he said.

The contract will be advertised for 30 days, Rainer said.

The project is expected to be the final step in a four-phase plan to hook up city pipes in areas annexed in 1990, where residents have paid property taxes that fund sewers and maintenance since the annexation, but not the subsequent higher water bills paid in areas with sewer service. After an eight-year court battle, that addition nearly tripled the city’s size, adding 21.5 square miles to bring its total area to 34 square miles.

The city used a $7 million bond issue in 1994 to install main sewer lines in the areas annexed in parts of both the North and South wards and a $346,943 state Community Development Block Grant to pay for residents’ sewer connections in the Kings area off North Washington Street.

Last month, the city also took steps to shore up another part of its sewer system when it awarded a $334,000 contract to Hemphill Construction Co. of Florence to upgrade the Bazinsky Lift Station. The south Vicksburg station, described by officials as outdated, too old and too small to handle some of the annexed areas it serves, will be outfitted with new, above-ground pumps to help move sewage from surrounding neighborhoods to the city pump station.

In other business, the board: