The Vicksburg Municipal Airport on U.S. 61 South will have another $524,000 to invest in upgrades via a federal grant accepted by the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen Wednesday.

The $262,000 grant, awarded by the Delta Regional Authority, will allow the city to buy a 19-acre tract on the north side of the 5,000-foot runway and clear it of trees and brush, as well as put up Federal Aviation Administration-approved fencing. While Leyens had previously said the grant required no local match, the board authorized spending another $262,000 in local money for the work.

The airport board has said the land acquisition and clearing work will make landing and taking off at the Vicksburg airport safer. The current fencing around the airport is not high enough to meet FAA requirements.

The work is included in the airport layout plan that Jackson-based consultant Neel-Schaffer is preparing. The document outlines uses of the airport and its design over the next 30 years. Neel-Schaffer is being paid $50,000 to create the plan, and Leyens has said money from a basic $150,000 grant the FAA provides to each airport on the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems nationwide receives annually will be used. Vicksburg Municipal Airport was returned to the NPIAS list in 2007. The city has also hired Loyce Clark of Birmingham of Excel Aviation Consulting Service for airport redevelopment.

The city took over Vicksburg Municipal Airport as an official department of the city in late October and is in the process of remodeling the nearly 60-year-old terminal with part of the $1.3 million grant the city received following Hurricane Katrina. The city is remodeling the terminal in-house in hopes of counting the work toward the 50 percent local match required of the grant. A new fire station will also be built with the money, and Leyens has said a new T-hangar building will also be included.

Earlier this month, Leyens announced the hiring of career casino executive and amateur aviator Curt Follmer as the new general manager of the airport. Simultaneously, Leyens said the airport is working with U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson and a private company to bring a $60 defense testing facility to Vicksburg, jointly based at the airport and the Engineer Research and Development Center.

The city’s renewed interest in the airport is a shift in its stance on the facility. In 1983, four local governments — Vicksburg, Warren County, Tallulah and Madison Parish — accepted $6 million in federal funds for a new, expandable airport to be built at Mound. When VTR opened in 1993, Vicksburg Municipal was taken off the FAA’s list of airports eligible for improvements, expecting VTR to be the facility to serve the area.

In 1998 the board of mayor and aldermen voted 2-1 to close Vicksburg Municipal, initiating a nearly four-year legal battle with local business interests who rallied to keep the airport open. The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that city officials had the authority to close the airport, but under Leyens’ new administration the board chose to keep Vicksburg Municipal open for at least seven more years.

Earlier in December, the city renegotiated its contract with its three other operating partners at VTR for five years instead of one that would require the city to help fund VTR for 25 years. The new operating contract must be approved separately by all four municipal boards before it is finalized.

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Contackt Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicskburgpost.com.