A decision whether to close the Vicksburg Municipal Airport has been pushed back to the end of August, and the property is off the table as a site for the sports complex as far as Mayor George Flaggs Jr. is concerned.

Flaggs announced his decision to move the airport vote from Aug. 3 to Aug. 25 at Monday’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, adding city officials will meet with the Federal Aviation Administration Aug. 10. The comment came before the board took under advisement bids to remove trees from the runway’s north end and install a precision approach path indicator at the airport.

He said later he will not vote to put the sports complex on the airport property, adding, “I am waiting on the committee to make a recommendation.”

Flaggs will visit the Vicksburg Municipal Airport Friday afternoon and go to Vicksburg Tallulah-Regional Airport at a later date.

His decision to visit the airports and delay a vote on closing, he said, was affected by comments from residents at a July 16 public hearing on the airport.

“Because the public hearing went so well, and so much information was given, I am reluctant to go fast, because this is a decision that I don’t think this board, particularly myself, can be wrong about,” he said. “We must be right, and I believe in order to be right we must know all the facts.

“I just don’t think I can pull the trigger, make a decision without at least making a visit and ask the questions that came out of the public hearing.”

Flaggs said after the meeting he believed it was incumbent as mayor of this city to go and talk with airport directors and look at not just the costs of operations, but to look at the economic impact, both positive and negative, for both airports.

He said he has flown into both Vicksburg and Vicksburg-Tallulah, but has never sat with the airport directors to ask questions about the respective airports.

“The hearing produced some very productive questions and relevant questions,” he said. “For instance, Mr. (Steve) Golding said he wouldn’t be for closing the airport until every tenant down there has a hangar at the Tallulah Airport.”

If the municipal airport’s tenants move to Vicksburg-Tallulah, Flaggs said, he needs to know how much the relocation will cost, whether Vicksburg-Tallulah can accommodate the planes, and whether the airport has a timetable for building new hangars.

“That’s relevant. None of that was taken into consideration,” he said.

Flaggs said concern over the time to move the tenants at Vicksburg was one reason he opposes using the property for the sports complex.

“What we have to do is not make a political vote. We must make a vote that’s in the best interest of the city, based on the facts. It is clear to me that if the FAA closes down the Vicksburg Airport, it will be permanent.

“I think when you make long-term decisions, you have to know the economic impact, positive and negative, before you make a decision,” he said.

The question of closing the airport arose after the property came under consideration as a possible site for the city’s proposed sports complex.

Flaggs called a public hearing on the airport July 9 after a meeting with FAA officials, who indicated the city would have to reimburse the FAA and the Mississippi Department of Tranmsportation $1.3 million in grant funds to the city to improve airport safety. About $441,000 of the FAA funds was to install a precision approach path indicator, or PAPI, for the airport and clearing trees from the north runway.

The board Monday morning took under advisement bids to install the PAPI from Killen Contractors, Inc. $54,221; Lewis Electric of Jackson, $102,840; and Webster Electric Co. of Meridian, $62,450. The Board received a bid of $142,185 from Look’s Great Service Inc. of Columbia to clear the woods.

About 40 people attended the July 16 public hearing to hear several residents discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both the municipal airport and Vicksburg-Tallulah, and the effect on economic development if the airport here is closed.