A study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review the effectiveness of a raised levee as an alternative to the Kings Point Ferry appears dead, according to a letter from the Vicksburg District to Warren County supervisors.

Despite the Corps’ original feasibility finding in 2000, its congressional allocations for the next eight years were not enough to fund the smallest level of flood protection, then pegged at $650,000.

The letter, signed by Planning, Programs and Project Management Division Chief Doug Kamien, cites a combination of factors contributing to the study’s termination. One was increased costs of levee construction and another was increased crop acreage planted as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wetlands Reserve Program.

The study was initiated by landowners and met mixed reaction from the county even though completion of the project could have ended the need for a ferry to serve the area, isolated in 1904 by the Yazoo Diversion Canal. About the same time, supervisors decided to invest in a new ferry boat and barge to meet U.S. Coast Guard safety minimums and continue to fund annual operating expenses.

A $124,933.51 refund check for the remaining matching money was sent to the county this week, County Administrator John Smith said.

The Corps’ decision could play into the county’s current request for a new court order specifying control of operating hours for the waterborne vessel, the only way to cross the Yazoo Diversion Canal from Warren County’s mainland.

Principals in M&M Property, LP, a land-owning group on Kings Point Island, filed suit in August after the county reduced hours to 12 following an illness of one of three certified pilots for the boat. A settlement was reached in which the county paid the complainants’ legal fees, but continual short staffing prompted the county to seek a new order. Another inquiry initiated by supervisors involves whether a new certificate can be secured from the U.S. Coast Guard that allows for qualified operators to work on the ferry instead of master pilots, who command higher salaries.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.