Revisions in the latest round of counterproposals between Warren County and Kinder Morgan to extend the company’s lease to operate the Port of Vicksburg were approved Monday and made part of a time frame to end the drawn-out talks.

Port commissioners and company officials agreed on terms that would have the company pay a base rent of $235,000 annually after the first of three, five-year options to which the commission agreed in October, plus 8 percent if yearly revenue tops $2.225 million. In two proposals shot down by commissioners in May, incentive benchmarks were set $575,000 higher and, in one case, base rent $35,000 less.

Terms take effect if the firm nails down a deal by Oct. 1 with Severstal to ship steelmaking components to the SeverCorr plant near Columbus. If not, both parties agreed, the contract to operate the port could be re-advertised.

Under the existing agreement signed in 2005, base rent is $135,000 and performance-based payments to the commission total 8 percent if the gross tops $1 million and 15 percent if it tops $1.4 million. The agreement is set to expire in December. Urgency to nail down both halves of the deal has grown for both sides since a push began in 2007 to renew the current deal.

“It probably does need a time frame on this,” Port Commission Executive Director Wayne Mansfield said, adding the terms were the best chance to recover money lost from the yearlong shutdown of activity while the T-dock crane support structure at the harbor was replaced. Tonnage unloaded at the port stood at 6,589 net tons for May, more than double the amount from April. More than half came from grain shipments used at the Bunge-Ergon ethanol plant at the port.

“Grain has turned out to be a pretty good business,” regional sales director Tom Murphree said, adding later the Oct. 1 deadline was “a fair date” in the overall status of negotiations and that August is the company’s latest target date for a deal with Russia-based Severstal.

Repairs to cracked portions of the T-dock are set for this month, county engineers said. Pig iron, the movement of which was halted after the heavy material damaged the loading surface, is set to move again soon thereafter, Murphree said.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com