An alternate redistricting plan for Warren County and a tacit endorsement of supervisors’ favored maps highlighted Tuesday’s public hearing on the matter.

Two alternatives on the table to redraw the county’s five political districts move areas of predominantly black sections of Vicksburg and Warren County into adjacent districts from which county supervisors, school board trustees and justice court judges are elected. Population losses inside the city in the 2010 census prompted the redraw of district lines to be submitted to the Department of Justice to comply with the federal voting rights law.

Districts 2 and 3 gain population on both proposals for supervisor and school board. Land along U.S. 80 between the city limits and Buck Drive, extending north to Culkin Road and south along Mississippi 27 to Stenson Road, would move to District 2 in the first plan. The second version excludes the city limits-to-Buck Drive strip of territory, currently in District 1.

District 3 would gain in two spots in the first plan — along U.S. 61 South to the city limits, bounded to the south by Grange Hall Road, and a piece south of East Clay Street between rail tracks north of Old Highway 27 and Mississippi 27. In the second version, the central city-based district gains neighborhoods between Halls Ferry Road and Wisconsin Avenue.

A second public hearing on the proposed new districts is set for 7 p.m. Monday in the supervisors’ meeting room on the third floor of the courthouse. A single hearing on the new justice court maps is set for Monday, May 23, at 10 a.m. Once a map is chosen by the board, the Justice Department has 60 days to approve it.

A third map presented Tuesday on behalf of the Vicksburg Branch of the NAACP by its chairman, John Shorter, shows less growth in District 2 than either of the supervisors’ two plans, which were coordinated by the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District. It also moves Campbell Swamp into District 5, from District 4, and keeps District 3 from moving south of the river bridges, its current border.

“We did enter into a lawsuit. Our lawsuit, I’d like to explain, was nothing against you all,” Shorter said of the suit filed by the local chapter against the county and both major parties’ executive committees, of which Shorter also heads up the Democratic panel. In March, the suit was combined along with similar cases against nine other Mississippi counties into a single case before Gulfport-based U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. “It was just the process,” Shorter said. “We would prefer that you would have put the elections on hold until the lines were submitted.”

Supervisors reacted sharply, emphasizing they followed state law when traditional deadlines were kept as the census figures came out about a month before local qualifying ended March 1.

“Gotta get your facts in order first,” Board President Richard George said. “The only authority we have is as the Warren County Board of Supervisors. Unless otherwise directed by federal authority or state legislative act, our authority is to follow the law as it is written today.”

Primary and general elections for countywide and district-level positions are still set for this year despite qualifying deadlines having passed and those for state legislators moved to June 1. The state’s legislative redistricting process has also moved to federal court, with a three-judge panel to decide which lines to use before the June 1 deadline. A second set of elections in 2012 hasn’t been ruled out.

De Reul, a candidate for the District 2 seat who has been highly critical of county officials in campaign ads, commended the board for both alternatives presented.

“To the average person, it looks a little bit mish-moshy,” Reul said. “I know you guys have done your best to do what’s best and fair for this county. Your numbers seem to be appropriate, so whatever you guys decide to send on to the judicial system, I’m hoping it will be the best for what we have in this county. I think you did a good job at what you did.”

The District 2 incumbent, William Banks, is opposed by city zoning board member Tommie Rawlings in the Democratic primary, with the winner facing Reul, an independent, and volunteer fireman Trey Smith, who filed as a Republican.

The justice court’s central district gains voters from the northern district on each of two maps proposed, which use the same census blocks that determine the supervisor districts and mirror much of the same movement likely on the supervisor maps.

In the first alternative, the central district expands eastward to take in everything between Culkin and Stenson roads except for a strip of U.S. 80 between the city limits and Buck Drive. It also gains territory south of East Clay and U.S. 80, including a chunk east of Mississippi 27 bounded by Stenson and Mount Alban roads.

The second alternative shows the northern district retaining the east side of Mississippi 27 and the central district keeping the expanded borders from the first proposal.