The question whether the Warren County Board of Supervisors can raze two buildings it owns on Adams Street behind the Warren County Courthouse is back in the city’s lap, and Mayor George Flaggs Jr. wants to see if a compromise can be reached in the dispute.

The supervisors are appealing an Oct. 14 decision by the city’s Board of Architecture Review that for the second time in six months denied a county request to take the buildings down. Flaggs, who has said he would oppose any attempt to demolish the buildings, pushed the city/county discussions Monday after the Board of Mayor and Aldermen set a 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25 hearing on the county’s appeal.

“I would like to call on the Board of Supervisors and all the parties involved to try and reach a compromise on this issue,” Flaggs said Monday morning. “I think this issue is so important that we ought to try and reach a compromise.”

He appointed City Attorney Nancy Thomas and Architectural Review Board president Toni Langford Ferguson to meet with county representatives to discuss the buildings.

“I want to create an opportunity, hopefully, between now and the 25th that our city attorney (and) the president of the Architectural Review Board to meet with the president of the board and sit down,”
he said. “I’m a man of compromise. There needs to be a compromise. We can’t keep kicking this can down the road.”

Flaggs later recommended Thomas and Ferguson meet with county administrator John Smith and county board attorney Marcie Southerland. Southerland, however, submitted her resignation, effective Nov. 10, to the supervisors Monday.

Board of Supervisors president Bill Lauderdale said had not heard from Flaggs, adding, “the intentions of the board have been pretty clear. We bought those buildings with the idea of tearing them down.”

He said he will wait until he hears from the board. “I’ll see what they have to say and then present it to the board,” he said.

The fate of both buildings has been debated by city and county officials since 2002. They are in the city’s Grove Street-Jackson Street National Register Historic District and protected under the city’s historic preservation ordinance, but both have been allowed to deteriorate.

Known as the “old Verhine building,” the house at 1015 Adams St. was built in the 1890s and was home to Verhine & Verhine law firm from 1991 to 2002, according to city directories.

The county’s former justice court building at 1019 Adams St. was completed in the 1870s as a house and was once the law office of John Prewitt before he became a circuit judge.

According to a letter earlier this year from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Verhine building is a contributing resource to the National Historic Register District and eligible for designation as a Mississippi Landmark. Archives and History lists the old justice court building as a non-contributing resource to the same national district. Because the old justice court building is in the city’s historic district, however, it is protected under the city’s regulations.

The board’s decision in October marked the fourth time in 10 years that it debated a county request to raze the buildings. In 2004 and 2005, the county sought to raze the buildings. The board put a 150-day stay on each request, but the county took no action.

After the board’s decision in April, the county appealed to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, which granted a 60-day extension in August. When the board granted the extension, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. indicated he would fight the demolition, adding, “If they get the blessings to demolish the buildings, they’re going to have to go through a court of law.”

The county bought the building in 1984, to be home to its three justice court districts. The judges were moved to 921 Farmer St. in 2002, and the building essentially became a storage bin.

County buildings and grounds director Chuck Thornton said the county bought the Verhine building about 2002 for about $46,000, adding it was in a dilapidated state when the county bought it, but did not know how much the county paid for the old justice court building.

He said the Verhine building was in disrepair when the county bought it, and the old justice court building was vacated in 2002 when it was considered a safety hazard.

If the Board of Mayor and Aldermen uphold the decision prohibiting razing the buildings, the county’s next resort is to appeal it to circuit court.

“We need to keep this out of the court,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “It actualy boils down to the city and county having to go before the judicial system (to resolve an issue). I know you don’t want that, I don’t want that.”

“I think it’s clear this board is asking for discussion; the mandate has already been set,” South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said.

On the agenda

Meeting Monday, the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen:

• Approved a proclamation honoring the Rev. Henry Mayfield Sr. who died Oct. 29.

• Reappointed Vicksburg businessman Harry Sharp to the Architectural Review Board.

• Approved a settlement with Best Way Motor Freight to settle an accident in which a Best Way truck hit a city truck.

• Approved $1,050 for advertising promoting the city with V105.5 radio for the annual Christmas Caroling Contest.

• Approved paying $5,473.09 for the city’s share of September expenses for the Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport.

• Declared the following holidays: Nov. 27 and 28, Thanksgiving; Dec. 24 and 25, Christmas; and Jan. 1 and 2, New Year’s.

• Approved $25,000 in matching funds to the Community Council of Warren County Inc. to be made in $12,500 in installments in January and February.

• Approved $10,000 in matching funds for Mountain of Faith Ministries.

• Approved $10,000 in matching funds the Exchange Club and the Child and Parenting Center.

• Took under advisement a bid from Fashions Inc. of Jackson for service uniforms. Fashions Inc. was the lone bidder. The bids were by line item.

• Approve paying a $31,596.46 invoice to Eastern Aviation Fuels Inc. for aviation gas at the Vicksburg Municipal Airport.

• Approved applying for a $5,000 Mississippi Department of Archives and History Certified Local Government Grant for signs identifying the city’s downtown historic district and a book explaining the district and its regulations for people selling or buying homes in the district.

• Amended the city zoning ordinance to rezone 1406 Marcus St. C-1 neighborhood commercial.

• Authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to sign an agreement with the Mississippi Department of Human Services for the $242,446 Child Care and Development Funds Grant for Good Shepherd Community Service.

In a related matter, the board authorized Flaggs to sign an agreement with United Way of Central Mississippi for and $87,000 from United Way to Good Shepherd.

• Authorized Flaggs to sign a fiscal 2014 Homeland Security Grant agreement between the city and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. Flaggs also signed an agreement naming city grants coordinator Marcia Weaver as the grant administrator.

• Authorized Flaggs to sign an application for a $13,667 fiscal 2015 Emergency Medical Services Operation Grant.