Depot plans on way to get state approval
Published 12:00 am Friday, January 15, 2010
Five design plans for the Levee Street Depot at City Front are complete, and on Thursday afternoon Director of Buildings and Inspections Victor Gray-Lewis was to submit them and supporting documents to the Mississippi Department of Transportation in Jackson. At a special called meeting, the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved documents requesting MDOT approve one of the plans in preparation for putting the renovation out to bid in the coming months.
Vicksburg owns the building and plans to use it for three purposes — a private transportation museum and administrative staff offices for Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau and for Vicksburg Main Street personnel.
“We’re hoping to be able to put it out to bid by April or May,” said City Attorney Lee Davis Thames Jr.
The work is to be funded with $1.9 million in federal stimulus dollars through MDOT. The city originally secured a $1.65 million grant in 2007 through MDOT that would have required about $410,000 in local funds and architect fees, however, a new deal requiring no local match was struck with MDOT in late December. Separately, the city has also secured a $53,900 grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for exterior renovations of the 103-year-old building.
Thames said MDOT officials will likely take 30 to 60 days to either accept one of the submitted designs or return them for alterations. Natchez-based architectural firm Waycaster & Associates was hired in July to complete the design plans for $113,520. Once under construction, the project is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete.
“We’re meeting the deadlines and moving forward as planned,” he said.
Vicksburg Transportation Museum Executive Director Lamar Roberts, who also owns and operates the Battlefield Museum, has estimated the new museum will draw in as many as 50,000 visitors annually. About 1,500 books, a dozen model trains with 150 model rail cars and other exhibits have already been donated to the museum.
Some of the model steamships currently in Roberts’ battlefield museum on North Frontage Road are to be moved to the new museum, and aviation displays are being designed. The Battlefield Museum will remain open as is until the transportation museum is complete, at which point Roberts has said the Battlefield Museum will primarily feature military displays.
The city inked a deal with the VCVB and Main Street last year to enter into a 20-year lease at $500 per month for rent, including utilities. The deal calls for the VCVB to contribute $150,000 toward architect and other fees. Both groups have been looking for a permanent home since the 2006 collapse of two buildings on Clay Street that were believed to have undermined the integrity of a nearby building they shared.
The depot is in the middle of a redeveloped area that has an art park, splash fountain, playground, murals on the flood wall and where the Army Corps of Engineers is building an interpretive center with the drydocked MV Mississippi IV as its centerpiece.
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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com