Street paving, a new fire station and improvements to city buildings and recreation facilities are among the projects included in a proposed capital improvements program estimated at $9.3 million, city officials said.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday approved the capital improvements list. Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said the board would approve a resolution of intent to issue bonds for the project at a later date.

He said representatives with Governmental Consultants Inc., a Jackson company that advises city and county governments on financial matters, were preparing the bond documents.

Once the bonds are issued, Accounting Director Doug Whittington told the board, it will have 24 months to draw down the money and three years to spend it on the projects. He said borrowing the $9.3 million would get the city a better interest rate.

The program is the first of a two-phase capital improvements plan estimated at $18 million. The second phase will not be initiated during the current administration, Flaggs said.

“It will be up to the next administration whether they want to draw down the remaining $8 million,” he said. “We don’t want to draw down more than we can afford.”

“There’s no way we can spend $18 million in three years,” Flaggs said after the meeting.

The city currently has an A2 bond rating from Moody’s Investment Services, a New York-based provider of credit ratings and risk analysis, which restored the rating in July, more than two years after pulling the city’s credit rating because of incomplete audit reports going back to 2008. Vicksburg’s current debt limit is $48 million.

“Hopefully we can get with (Public Works Director) Garnet (Van Norman) and have projects ‘shovel ready’ by May, the beginning of construction season,” Flaggs said. “Hopefully, we’ll be finalizing the 592 (auxiliary waterline) and get that project started.”

“This is a good plan we’ve put in place,” South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said. “We have streets that haven’t been paved in a decade and some of our neighborhood parks have gone down.”

“This plan is flexible,” Flaggs said. “That way, if we find something that is so necessary that it takes priority over something else, we can include it.”

The list of projects set for the first phase include:

• Street paving, $4.6 million: The project will be done in two phases in the North and South wards.

The board on Jan. 22 approved a $143,500 contract with Applied Research Associates Inc. of Champaign, Ill., to do a street survey, which will be used to develop a priority list for street paving in the future.

• Parking lot improvements, $1.15 million: The work includes resurfacing parking lots at Riverfront Park, Halls Ferry Park, the roads in Cedar Hill Cemetery, the parking lots at the baseball and girls softball fields at Bazinsky Park, and the city-owned parking lot at Catfish Row by LD’s Restaurant.

• Recreation, $1.3 million: The projects include renovations to the City Park Pavilion, $350,000; farmers’ market pavilion and improvements, $550,000; Kings playground, $100,000; and improvements totaling $300,000 to neighborhood and Riverfront Park. Riverfront Park is owned jointly by the city and the county. The city handles repairs and maintenance at the park.

• Municipal buildings, $2.25 million: Projects include a new fire station, $1.6 million; repairs to City Hall’s exterior, $375,000; and replacing carpet and tile at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

The board Tuesday approved a contract with Central Mississippi Planning and Development District to perform needs assessment to determine if the locations of the city’s fire departments meet the city’s needs based on the Mississippi Fire Rating Bureau criteria and to recommend a location for the new station.