Vicksburg may move as early as Monday to borrow $15 million to $20 million to fund a variety of capital projects, including redevelopment of the Oak Street corridor.

Mayor Laurence Leyens said at a meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen that he’d like to see the legal process start at their next session, which is also the first meeting of the new fiscal year, which officially starts Sunday.

Adoption of a resolution to issue bonds would also start a 30-day protest period. A petition, already called for by the local branch of the NAACP, would need signatures of 1,500 registered voters to result in a referendum.

Vicksburg, which has issued bonds many times, has not had a bond vote in at least 50 years. Ratings agencies list the city’s credit as excellent and Leyens, in his second term, has maintained since before his first term that low interest rates provide a good opportunity for the city to pay for large projects.

Thursday, Strategic Planner Paul Rogers advised the city’s three elected officials to decide what they want to fund.

&#8220The board members will need to agree on the major issues that will be” addressed in the issue, Rogers said.

The Oak Street corridor project is a southward extension of downtown redevelopment. Under the plan, the city would buy for resale and improvement dilapidated housing and clear river vistas.

The NAACP position, stated in a letter, is that would displace people from their homes, leaving them no place to go. The letter also pointed out rising expenses for city residents’ utility services and the city’s existing debt.

Other borrowed money, city officials have said, would be used for street improvements and a softball and recreation complex on land the city purchased near Hamilton Heights subdivision west of Halls Ferry Road.

A major project on the city’s agenda is a $5 million replacement of the Washington Street rail overpass at Clark Street. The project is ultimately to be federally funded, but interim financing would be needed to meet the city’s hoped-for construction schedule. At least some of that financing is expected to be included in the amount the city plans to raise through the bond issue, Rogers said.

In October 2001, when Leyens had been in office three months, the city OK’d issuing bonds up to $17.5 million. About $5 million of that was used to renovate downtown, including improvements to Washington Street, including purchase of properties for resale. The balance was used for a variety of purposes, including extensive landscaping and intersection makeovers.

Debt service on the 2001 bond issue is about 7 percent of the city’s $28.6 million general fund budget with about $2 million due each year until 2011. In March, the city paid off the last $1.2 million of money borrowed 12 years ago to build the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Money from any new bond issue could be in the city’s hands as early as December or early next year, Rogers said.

Also Thursday the board: