District 1 had double the usual clout on the Vicksburg Bridge Commission Wednesday.

Commissioner Tom Hill, and Wesley B. Jones, appointed Jan. 3 in a vote now deemed out of line by Warren County’s legal counsel, listened and limited their comments during a 90-minute session.

“I’ve asked Wesley — because of all the legalities of what we’re doing here every day — to be as silent as possible,” said board chairman Robert Moss, after the commission giggled over a question about six “yes” votes instead of five to approve December’s minutes and monthly financial reports for the panel that manages the U.S. 80 bridge over the Mississippi River.

The votes were taken with “silent aye” method, where no spoken words upon the chair’s call for a vote automatically means yes, with both Hill and Jones voting for agenda items and board officers for 2012.

Bridge commission minutes are taken by the panel’s appointed secretary, traditionally the bridge superintendent, and are filed with the Chancery Clerk’s Office.

Wednesday’s minutes will show who made and seconded motions and whether it carried but doesn’t break down votes.

“As long as we have a majority of unquestioned commissioners voting, I’m not going to worry about what else happens,” Moss said later.

Appointees on the five-member board are nominated by individual county supervisors and voted upon by the full board. Members serve staggered, five-year terms. The term for Hill, a retired engineer appointed by former supervisor David McDonald in 2005, ends in 2015. Jones, an electrical contractor, was appointed by District 1 Supervisor John Arnold, his stepfather, as part of a parallel move to change chairs on the port commission. Supervisors have been told by board attorney Marcie Southerland to rescind the vote based on statutes governing appointments to each entity.

Commissioners are paid $362.10 monthly.

The bridge kept a “fair-to-very good” rating in 2011 despite four incidents with barges during the year, said Rudy McLellan of Baton Rouge-based G.E.C., the commission’s inspection firm.

McLellan said bearings damaged when a barge tow struck pier 2 last March were “fixed successfully” after one barge was stuck on the pier base for 22 days. Pier 2 stayed more or less stationary in the past year, but has moved 24 inches to 30 inches west since the bridge was built in 1930, McLellan said.

Cracks to girder flanges in three places under the rail bed on the Louisiana side have grown, with two about 25 inches long, McLellan said. Repairs aren’t expected until later in the year, but, in the interim, train speed limits could be lowered from 20 mph to 10 mph to alleviate stress on the bridge, McLellan said. At one point, Jones asked if a support plate could be cracked. McLellan said only the connector flanges are cracked, but more could have formed since the physical inspection ended in October.

For the third straight year, commissioners are waiting to officially accept the report until it notes more details about bracing on the rail tracks. Only a third of the bracing was replaced properly, superintendent Herman Smith said. The board wanted specifics from McLellan on how improperly sized rail ties have damaged the bracing, though both sides said proof required further studies.