VenuWorks, the management company that operates the Vicksburg Convention Center and Vicksburg Auditorium, received a 30-day extension on its contract Thursday, giving the company and the City of Vicksburg time to negotiate a long-term deal, officials said.

VenuWorks’ second five-year contract was to expire today.

Based in Ames, Iowa, VenuWorks has had a contract with the city since 2001. The new contract, which Mayor Paul Winfield said he expects to be ready by mid-October, is expected to run three or five years.

Neither city attorney Lee David Thames Jr. nor Larry Gawronski, Vicksburg Convention Center manager, would discuss the terms of the new contract, citing ongoing negotiations. Winfield said the proposed contract includes possible improvements by VenuWorks to the auditorium and the convention center, a change in the fees the city pays the company and more diversity options for contracting events.

He said the board had considered extending the current contract for only six months, but said the new proposal is a better deal for the city.

Gawronski said representatives from VenuWorks’ corporate offices were handling the negotiations. Attempts to contact VenuWorks president Steven Peters about the new contract were unsuccessful.

“We’re very happy to be renewed, and we’re dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s,” Gawronski said, adding that the board’s decision “indicates that the Board of Mayor and Aldermen are interested in continuing our relationship.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Gawronski said. “We love the city and we’ve been doing a bang-up job on the performance end.”

According to information provided by Gawronski, the convention center’s August income was 92 percent higher than the projected $22,452, bringing in $43,022 during the month. Auditorium income was up 13 percent during the same period.

As of Sept. 15, attendance at events in the convention center and the auditorium totaled 80,972 people this year and involved 258 use days. Convention center attendance was up 11 percent over 2010, with 50,790 people, as opposed to 45,588 in 2010, and the number of event days was up 23 percent at 177 days over 144 days in 2010.

Convention center advisory board chairman Cliff Whitney III called the board’s decision great news.

“Our board has been very pleased with the job VenuWorks has done,” he said. “The city made the right decision, and we’re looking forward to another term.”

The board members approved a resolution on Sept. 7 supporting renewing VenuWorks’ contract with the city.

Whitney said the resolution was passed because the contract’s expiration was getting near, and “we wanted to make sure that the mayor and aldermen knew the board was 100 percent behind VenuWorks.”

In another matter, the board declared an emergency to repair 18 utility poles at the city’s water towers and the water treatment plant. Declaring an emergency allows the board to get quotes for repairs rather than go through the bid process.

Acting public works director Garnet Van Norman estimated the project cost at $70,000.

He said the work is the result of an inspection of the poles after a storm last week. High winds from the storm blew a loose guy wire on a city utility pole at the treatment plant on a power line, causing a short that blew fuses and temporarily knocked out power to the plant. He said Entergy fixed the problem.

“That storm was a wake-up call,” Van Norman said, adding that city officials hired Killen Electric Contractors of Brandon to inspect all the poles, insulators and power lines at the plant and at each tower.

“We found a lot of problems,” he said.