City will front money for Levee Street Depot project
Published 12:02 am Saturday, October 9, 2010
The Levee Street Depot project received new life after two groundbreaking delays due to unfinished city audits.
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Friday decided to use the city’s general funds to proceed with the building renovation project while waiting for the $1.9 million federal stimulus money awarded to the project to be released by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. The release of the funds are pending on the completion of the city’s 2008-09 audits, which are estimated to be finished within a year.
After which, the city will plan to apply for a complete reimbursement.
“Is this where I start calling you hero?” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield asked Mayor Paul Winfield, who said at last week’s board meeting that he had planned to look into the situation and proceed with the project.
“We’re excited to do this project,” Winfield said. “This will stimulate growth and economic development.”
Official groundbreaking has not been announced, but officials have said preliminary testing on the building can begin as early as Monday.
Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. Builder Inc., which has offices in Greenwood and Gautier, was awarded the $1.535 million contract.
Renovations to the depot are expected to be completed within a year.
The 14,000-square-foot, three-story depot will house a transportation museum on the ground floor and office space for the Vicksburg Main Street Program and Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau above.
The city had purchased the depot in 2002 for about $295,000.
Less than a block away, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working to transform the dry-docked MV Mississippi IV into a $16 million interpretive center and museum, which is scheduled to be completed in about a year.
Also on Friday, the board announced that Halloween trick-or-treating will be observed from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 31.
Law enforcement officials said the streets in the city and county will be heavily patrolled.
“I will have every deputy on staff out patrolling,” Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said. “Every commissioned staff will be out on that Sunday.”