Nearly three weeks after much of his ward was drenched and flooded in a matter of hours by torrential rains, North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield is calling for the city to be more active in its pursuit of federal grants to stem the persistent erosion that threatens roads and houses throughout Vicksburg.

Bids for two such projects are expected to be rejected at a special meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Monday, however, and Mayfield’s colleagues on the board downplayed the viability or necessity of securing projects with funds he himself described as &#8220scarce.”

&#8220There’s probably 20 projects in the North Ward alone that need to be done, like, yesterday,” Mayfield said. &#8220We’re at a stage right now that if it’s overlooked, it’s going to become worse by the day. We can do a little bit now and do some good or do a whole lot later and do very little good, and I don’t want to get caught in that situation.”

At its regular meeting this past Monday, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen opened three bids for two sites funded under the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Environmental Watershed Protection grants, designed to protect infrastructure and homes from erosion. The bids ranged from $91,766 (Dirtworks of Vicksburg) to $162,620 (Gulf States Services of Mobile) for work to stop washing that threatens a culvert that serves as a roadway on Melrose Drive, just off Halls Ferry Road, and a bridge on National Street near the entrance to Victory Avenue.

Those bids will be rejected Monday and readvertised, said Tasha Bell with the city clerk’s office Friday afternoon.

Outside of those projects – which can take between a few months and two years to navigate federal bureaucratic channels and require a 25 percent match of total costs by the city – erosion control will not become part of a trend in city spending, said Mayor Laurence Leyens, who questioned City Hall’s return on investment in such projects.

&#8220If it only rains 4 inches (in one day) once every 50 years, then we have to ask whether it’s worth the money,” Leyens said last week. &#8220The matching funds are being used to pave roads and fix sidewalks. We made a budget-conscious decision: no more NRCS – other than these we did today – until the city’s business is done first.”

Part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the NRCS initiates such projects when engineers with the USDA determine a threat to public safety due to erosion close to a roadway. To qualify, a site must experience 4 inches of rain in 24 hours and a majority of the damage must come from a single storm event, said Raymond Joyner, NRCS district conservationist for Warren County.

No set distance exists for how close the erosion occurs beside a road to qualify. That aspect is usually left to the discretion of federal inspectors. Usually, the key criteria for a certain location to be approved is the threat to the roadway nearest the eroding land.

Once a site is approved, the project is funded by a 75-25 split between the federal and local government entity.

&#8220The loess soil is the No. 1 problem” causing extensive erosion in Warren County, Joyner said. &#8220It has the consistency of compacted dust. It’s very unstable and highly erosive.”

Four sites in Vicksburg – on Halls Ferry Road, Sherman Avenue, Woods Street and Indiana Avenue – with work estimated at a combined $475,000 have met NRCS standards under the EWP umbrella, Joyner said, but have not been taken up by the city. Four other projects that did not meet NRCS standards may be pursued as line items in congressional appropriations, which is 100 percent money that requires no matching funds.

&#8220You’ve got eight projects sitting there, and what’s more frustrating is, those are only the tip of the iceberg,” Mayfield said. &#8220The list is actually growing by the day.”

He said he was also looking at the possibility of adding several of the sites affected by flooding on July 22, when water dumped during a brief but intense storm front forced dozens of residents from their homes and trapped others on porches. At least seven homes were evacuated on Lane Street in Marcus Bottom, on Wabash Avenue near Sky Farm Avenue and on Hudson Street in Kings in north Vicksburg. Flash flooding was also reported on Fillmore Street off Clay, where a river of water poured through the street, as well as on Paxton Road in the county, on Spring Street near Clay and at Jones Body Shop at 1110 Vanderbilt St., also near Clay.

The official reading was 3.98 inches of rain, but some areas may have received more in the downpour.

&#8220Sky Farm, in particular, is an area where it’s almost mind-boggling to see what happens when we have torrential rains,” said Mayfield, who has lived on Sky Farm Avenue since 1979 and added he has seen the terrain shift dramatically in his own back yard. &#8220It’s like a volcano. You know you have a problem brewing