Vicksburg fire and rescue personnel will join drills this summer simulating evacuations from Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, state and city officials said.

A decision not to participate was announced during a dispute over whether the city would get a cut of the  $6,000 Entergy Nuclear has been paying to Warren County for past participation in the exercises, held about every two years. City officials said they did not know the county had been getting the money until this year.

City officials met Monday with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and the nuclear power plant’s operators to spell out parameters of the drill, delayed to July 14 and 15 from its original March dates.

“We’re participating provided they heard us and accepted us,” Vicksburg Emergency Management Director Anna Booth said.

State officials confirmed the city’s participation. Day one of the drill would involve the city’s forces, with the second day a “dress rehearsal” of sorts involving decontamination exercises, MEMA spokesman Katherine Gunby said.

A larger-scale exercise involving Warren County volunteer fire departments will be graded by FEMA observers from Washington, D.C., and will commence Sept. 9, Gunby said.

The drills began soon after the reactor in Claiborne County began operations in 1985. Reimbursements have been aimed at defraying costs for labor and for supplies used by law enforcement staffs. In January, Mayor Laurence Leyens expressed displeasure that the city wasn’t being paid.

Demands were made to the state to pay for the Vicksburg Fire Department’s participation in future drills and in refresher courses in emergency training, a figure pegged by the city at more than $20,000. MEMA countered with a request that Warren County pay 75 percent of its reimbursement money to the city, plus 50 percent of the remaining cash balance from prior drills. If paid according to those guidelines, the city would receive about $19,500, or about the same as the city’s estimate on the cost for the extra training.

County Administrator John Smith said the “ball is in (the city’s) court” as it relates to fulfilling the state’s request. About a week after a conference between the state and county, supervisors said the surplus funds would pay for drill-related supply needs in its own department before the city received any money.

Booth said a decontamination shower planned at Warren Central High School will remain at the Mississippi 27 school despite the city’s protests that it be moved to the Vicksburg Municipal Airport on U.S. 61 South. It would be a cheaper location from which to conduct such an exercise because it is closer to the state’s only nuclear facility and is along the likeliest evacuation route, city officials have said.

All counties are required to have comprehensive emergency management plans spelling out responses during natural disasters, chemical accidents or other emergencies. The first parts of Warren County’s comprehensive plan were accepted by supervisors in 2007, covering general definitions. Emergency support functions, or a detailed report on which local government departments respond and to what degree, have yet to be agreed upon.

An emergency management department was established within the city government the same year and has been funded with general fund dollars. Such departments within city government in Mississippi are usually funded as part of taxing districts.

No off-site emergencies have been declared by Entergy Nuclear, which operates the plant.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com