The Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau is moving into the old Levee Street Depot after all.

After having second thoughts in August about the depot, the VCVB Board of Directors Friday approved moving into the 104-year-old building after renovations are completed in October. The decision came after a 40-minute executive session at a special meeting at the depot that included a tour of the building.

VCVB board chairman Annette Kirklin said after the meeting that the VCVB will share the depot’s second floor with a portion a planned transportation museum. The bureau’s offices will be on the northern half of the second floor. She added that the Vicksburg Main Street program will occupy the third floor.

The VCVB, Kirklin said, will pay the City of Vicksburg $500 a month rent and contribute $150,000 toward the city’s match of a $1.65 million Mississippi Department of Transportation grant to renovate the building.

Both amounts were part of a 2009 letter of understanding between the city and VCVB.

“We still have some cosmetic issues to discuss (with the city), but we’re ready to move forward,” Kirklin said.

City buildings and inspection department director Victor Gray-Lewis, who is also the city’s project director for the depot renovation, said Friday that he met with representatives for project architect Waycaster & Associates of Natchez to discuss several issues that were not included in the initial renovation plans. One of those, he said, was the cost to add three offices and a conference room on the third floor.

“If VCVB and Main Street are going to have offices there, they’re going to need a conference room,” he said.

Gray-Lewis said the other depot issues discussed included wiring for lights in the front of the building and a water heater.

The VCVB board on Aug. 26 decided after an executive session to meet with an attorney and discuss its options regarding the building.

“The VCVB’s concern was space,” Gray-Lewis said. “When we began this project, the (Vicksburg-Warren County) Chamber of Commerce was going to occupy the third floor and the VCVB and Main Street were going to share space on the second floor with the museum. They didn’t know if they would have enough space.”

The Chamber later backed out of its plans to locate in the depot.

Work on depot restoration began in 2010 and was halted when the Mississippi River dumped 4 feet of water into the building as the river reached record heights in Vicksburg, cresting at 57.1 feet on May 19, 14.1 feet above flood stage and 1.3 foot above the Great Flood of 1927.

The high water halted work on the depot, which became a national symbol of the flooding in Vicksburg. Work resumed in June.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Aug. 31 approved a supplemental agreement with the project contractor, Kenneth R. Thomspon Jr. Builder, estimated at $23,000 to repair damage to the depot from the 2011 flood that was not covered under the original agreement.

Officials expect another amendment estimated at $33,000 in the near future to cover damage that was not covered by Thompson’s insurance. Gray-Lewis said the city will submit the bills from both contract amendments to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursement.