The Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum and Interpretive Center, the Vicksburg National Military Park, South Frontage Road extension, dredging for the Port of Vicksburg and funding for environmental infrastructure were among the items on the table when Mayor George Flaggs Jr. met Tuesday in Washington D.C. with members of Mississippi’s Congressional Delegation.

The visit was Flaggs’ second personal visit to Washington. He will make another trip in January when the city’s delegation of officials and business leaders makes its annual visit to Washington.

Besides meeting with officials, Flaggs delivered a 13-page booklet outlining the city’s needs and wants.

“I think this has been one of the most productive meetings I’ve had since I’ve been in politics,” he said.

He believes the election of a Republican Party majority in the U.S. Senate will be an asset to Mississippi. U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, who had been the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, is expected by some officials in Washington to be named committee chairman.

“I think Sen. Cochran will be in an ideal position to help us, (and) help the state of Mississippi,” he said. “With Sen. Wicker in a better position to help the state with a Republican majority.”

He said from what he has heard in Washington “everything with Mississippi is beginning to rise in leadership up here. When you say Mississippi, and particularly those two names, Cochran and Wicker, it gets a great reception.”

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen in November hired a part-time employee to do maintenance at the Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum and Interpretive Center, and discussed the possibility of a partnership between the city, state and federal government that would allow the city to operate the center with the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the center, helping with its $300,000 operating cost.

“We want to see continued funding for the museum and see how we can assist them in the operation of it if they can help us with the funding,” Flaggs said. “That’s still in discussion. I’ve been talking to the governor’s office and Sen. Cochran’s office and to Congressman (Bennie) Thompson’s office about what they can work out through the budget process.

“I think it will be a tremendous asset to the City of Vicksburg if we can operate it. We just need some help with the operational funding. I hope the state will buy into it as a stakeholder.”

City and tourism officials and Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign have been working to enlarge the scope of the park to include related battle sites like Raymond, Champion Hill and Port Gibson, to encourage tourists to spend time in Vicksburg and visit other sites, businesses and restaurants in the city.

The officials and members of Friends have travelled to Gettysburg to learn how the friends organization for that park has promoted it.

Flaggs wants more funding for the park and wants the National Park Service, examine opportunities to link the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, which both ended July 4, 1863.

The mayor also wants help getting federal funding to upgrade Interstate 20 and extend South Frontage Road.

The Legislature in January appropriated $4 million for planning the South Frontage extension, and he is hoping to see Congress find the money to begin construction after the designs are complete.

“I’m told there’s a transportation bill in the making between now and next year (2015 and 2016) and I’m hoping we can get some money to assist the state and expedite the timing of it,” he said.

On another infrastructure issue, Flaggs asked for continued funding for dredging at the Port of Vicksburg by the Corps and gave his support to restoring funding for the 1999 Water Resources Reform and Development Act, which provided assistance for cities with water and sewer collection facilities.

The city is under a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency to replace and upgrade its sewer collection system after the EPA determined the city allowed raw sewage to flow into the Mississippi River and other local streams.

Part of the settlement requires the city to map, repair and improve its 107-year-old system in 10 years.

“We want to support that bill and those efforts, because that would help us and assist us in the consent decree,” Flaggs said.