It could be December before the emergency management plan being developed for Vicksburg is ready, but two developments at Monday’s board meeting moved the city closer to being ready for disaster.

After a second round of advertising, the city received sealed bids for two electronic message boards to display public notices in the event of a catastrophe, and the city’s emergency management plan moved a step forward with authorization of a $74,893 contract with Applied Research Associates.

The company will develop software to serve as a database for information on emergency response to be distributed among city departments.

The plans, which are being developed under the auspices of planning coordinator Anna Booth, will focus on the response of city departments and utilities to various disasters.

Booth said the emergency management plan is being formulated as information is gathered.

&#8220Our plans are (to be ready) in December 2007, hopefully sooner,” she said.

Mandated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the creation of an emergency management plan has been a priority for years, said Alderman Sid Beauman.

The city effort gained impetus when Mayor Laurence Leyens was critical both of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency’s preparations for and response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. That criticism continued afterward at what Leyens called incomplete county planning. He initially said the city would sever ties and develop its own plan, but later said he would continue to work on an integrated plan.

&#8220Homeland Security expects local jurisdictions to have a comprehensive plan for emergency management,” Beauman said Monday.

In another step to being prepared for disaster, officials opened bids for LED signs needed to direct traffic in the event of a catastrophe.

The city’s ad called for two solar-powered boards, whose primary use would be to display public messages in the event of an emergency, but which could be used for other purposes in calmer times by various departments.

Controllers will be able to program the messages they display by using a cell phone.

They will be purchased using money from the Department of Homeland Security.

The bids received were from American Signal of Atlanta, $31,358; Traffic Control Products, of Brandon, $36,915; K&K Systems, of Tupelo, $30,283; Custom Products of Jackson, $47,166; and National Signal, of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., $18,400.