From staff reports

Tours of the MV Mississippi V and the Mississippi River Commission building on Walnut Street will be available as part of the panel’s annual high-water inspection Wednesday.

Tours offered on Wednesday, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The two will be open to the public from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for introductory briefings followed by tours that highlight the commission’s work in the Mississippi valley. A public meeting aboard the towboat begins at 9 a.m.

An inspection boat and work boat for the commission, the vessel used primarily as a working towboat for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Memphis District. It is the venue for public meetings held by the commission for high- and low-water inspections. It was commissioned in 1993 and replaced the MV Mississippi IV. The latter is dry-docked on Washington and Jackson streets as part of the proposed Lower Mississippi River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Center.

The MRC building, regarded as the finest example of Romanesque architecture in the state of Mississippi, is headquarters for the commission and the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division.

Established in 1879, the seven-member commission recommends policy and work programs, studies and reports on modifications or additions to the ongoing flood control and navigation project on the river and making semiannual inspection trips.