Supervisors OK renewing $2.5 million bonds to fund structure|[03/06/07]
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Another step was taken toward replacing the T-dock crane support structure at the Port of Vicksburg Monday as Warren County supervisors approved an intent to renew up to $2.5 million in bonds to pay for it.
Adopting the resolution is the first step in a process expected to take six months until funds are available. In the next 30 days, a petition can be filed against the action and, if so, a referendum must be held.
Work to replace the dock, damaged at its piers by barges bumping into it since it was built in the 1970s, and repair the bridge leading to it has been estimated at $1.7 million. Supervisors also rolled into the bond issue money to pay for two other pressing goals of the Port Commission, financing a replacement of the crane itself and shoring up the Yazoo Diversion Canal widening project.
The bonds being renewed were first issued in 1998 for port improvements and are set to be paid off in 2008. Renewing them leaves the existing .53 mills of taxation in place until the new debt is paid off.
Still, with the entire board facing re-election this year from multiple opponents, the board took great pains to point out the issue does not translate into a tax increase.
“It will be a continuing debt once we pay off the other bond,” District 2 Supervisor William Banks said.
The dock is a T-shaped support structure on which the crane sits and is situated on a portion of Port Terminal Circle that is closed to vehicular traffic. The other crane in operation at the port handles cargo weighing less than 15 tons.
A report by county engineers late last year and in January led to the dock’s closure in February. Its findings detailed corrosion and cracked welds to steel pipes underneath the structure from contact by barges unloading cargo, along with movement of the entire dock.
In another matter, a motion by District 4 Supervisor Carl Flanders to request changes in state law concerning the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau died without a second.
A similar motion by Flanders also went down in defeat in February.
It would have asked local legislators to file a local and private bill to spell out members of the 11-member tourism board be approved by board majorities of the City of Vicksburg and Warren County.
Also, Flanders wanted to have lawmakers change language concerning the executive directorship of the VCVB. The resolution would have authorized the bureau to hire not only individuals but corporations and management firms.
Two opinions from the Attorney General’s Office, however advisory in nature, have spoken on both matters. One, in January 2006, said a “natural person” could be hired as executive director. The other, in October, stipulated a county nominee to the VCVB must win a majority vote and not just the support of the nominating supervisor.
Debate on the matter was an exchange between Flanders and District 2 Supervisor William Banks, both of whom have nomination vacancies on the board.
Banks has vowed not to nominate anyone for the seat other than former city-appointed board member Bobbie Bingham Morrow, one of the five members who voted against Compass Facility Management as the agency’s executive director.
Banks said any change involving changing language on the directorship would “ratify a wrong.”