Instead of going toward re-roofing 150 homes at Rolling Acres, the $888,000 in federal stimulus money allocated to the Vicksburg Housing Authority will be spent at Waltersville Estates, said VHA Executive Director Dannie Walker.

On the agenda

On Tuesday, the Vicksburg Housing Authority Board of Commissioners:

• Approved meeting minutes from June 16, July 8 and 21 and Aug. 18.

• Approved invoices paid since Aug. 18.

• Approved a revised budget for the current fiscal year. VHA Executive Director Dannie Walker said revenues will be higher and expenses will be lower than anticipated by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. “Overall, our bottom line looks really good,” he said.

The commission is scheduled to meet again at 5 p.m. Oct. 20 at VHA Executive Offices, 113 Elizabeth Circle.

The housing authority — which has been plagued over the past year by the high-profile arrest of a former supervisor on drug and embezzlement charges and the firing of former Executive Director Jim Stirgus Sr. — has managed to identify the stimulus spending before a Sept. 30 deadline.

“There is no risk of us losing those funds at this point,” Walker said after the VHA Board of Commissioners monthly meeting Tuesday.

Before being fired by the commission in May, Stirgus said the stimulus money would be spent on new roofs and other renovations at Rolling Acres, one of six subdivisions managed by the housing authority. However, after firing Strigus, the commission also voted to halt payments to Atlanta-based Southeast Engineering Group, which was to handle the engineering services for the stimulus spending and had been a VHA contractor for years.

Commission Chairman Jay Kilroy presented the commission a variety of documents that suggested Southeast Engineering Group was not fulfilling the services for which it was being paid more than $18,000 per month, and the commission decided it needed to rethink how it was going to spend the stimulus funds.

Walker told the board the VHA has executed a contract with Grenada-based Jones-Zander architectural firm to handle all future engineering needs. The stimulus spending plan, he said, has been submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides much of the VHA’s operating budget in addition to rental collections.

“We’ll be re-roofing the 150 apartments at Waltersville, replacing some dormers and replacing rotten or deteriorating facia boards,” Walker said of some of the plans for the $888,000.

Only one problem remains: the VHA does not have any blueprints of Waltersville Estates. Walker said he believes Southeast Engineering Group might still have them. A member of Jones-Zander has made contact with the group in hopes of tracking them down, he added.

“If we can’t get them, we’ll have to have Jones-Zander come out and take new measurements; basically start from scratch,” he said.

Blueprints of VHA properties do not normally leave the executive offices without being signed for, but Walker said he can find neither the blueprints nor evidence of where they went. He said he does not believe any other blueprints are missing.

The City of Vicksburg has no management or auditing authority over the VHA other than appointing the five commission members who, in turn, hire a director. Funding for the agency, which manages 430 homes and apartments at six subdivisions throughout the city, comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and rent payments. A federal investigation into the VHA is reported to be ongoing.

Commissioners present Tuesday were Kilroy, Christopher Barnett, Ella Lee and Charles Wright. Commission Attorney Buddy Dees was also present.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com