From staff reports

Equipment tests will begin Wednesday at International Paper’s Vicksburg Mill on Mississippi 3, an initial step toward restarting the plant.

Steam will be vented from the power boiler and associated equipment will start in the morning hours and wrap up by 9 p.m. Thursday. Company officials said sounds will be louder than normal operations but should not alarm people in the area.

An initial vent will last 20 minutes, with a 60- to 90-minute break to evaluate the system. Up to five 10- to 15-minute ventings will follow, with a similar rest period in between.

Officials have said the company plans to have workers returning this month to gradually build up to full operation by November.

A May 3 explosion while its recovery boiler was undergoing annual maintenance killed one contract worker and injured 17 others.

Jones joins Post

as news reporter

Elizabeth Jones has joined The Vicksburg Post as a news reporter.

A December graduate of the University of South Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in arts communication, Jones is a native of Alabama who has lived and worked in Texas and Oregon.

She interned at the Tri-County Spotlight in Birmingham, United Way of Southwest Alabama in Mobile and Mobile Bay Monthly. She was nonfiction editor of The Oracle, USA’s literary magazine, and a reporter at The Vanguard, USA’s newspaper.