The crane at the port of Vicksburg could be repaired and back in service by early summer.

“Best case scenario, we hope, with no delays, we’ll have the crane up and running by the end of May,” said Chris Maxwell, terminal manager for WATCO, the company that handles port operations for Warren County. “The repair process is already underway. We’ve ordered the new remote control process and the blue prints and planning process has begun. The physical work begins April 5.”

The crane has been out of service since Feb. 14, when it was heavily damaged in a fire. Maxwell said WATCO has been working plans to repair it since then.

“We began working with adjustors on estimates and parts to repair it since Feb. 19,” he said.

He said the process leading to the start of the actual physical work on the crane repairs has been slow because of the process adjusters for the insurance company that covers the crane had to follow.

“There are several people involved in the investigation of the fire of the crane,” Maxwell said “That investigation started two days after the fire.

While the adjustors were unclear about the fire’s cause, they believe it was an electrical source “but they don’t know what kind of electrical source.”

“They had to put any company (that had equipment in the crane’s cab) on notice there was an incident and one of their products was in the incident. That’s not placing blame on anybody, but you have to give them fair notice to give their people time to come down and investigate. They can’t go further in the investigation until those people had a fair chance to be here.”

The company representatives are expected to be in Vicksburg April 4 for one last look at the crane and the cab.

“April 4 date is the date all those people will be here to conclude the investigation with all the parties involved in one place at one time,” Maxwell said.

The length of the process toward repairing the crane coupled with confusion about what would happen April 4, created problems with the Warren County Board of Supervisors. Several supervisors and port director Wayne Mansfield at a March 8 meeting expressed their displeasure with what they believed was a case of foot-dragging on WATCO’s part.

The controversy was worked out at a Wednesday meeting between the supervisors, WATCO representatives and Warren County Port commissioners.

Maxwell believes the problem with the April 4 date was confusion over what was supposed to happen.

“There have been multiple people here looking at the crane since two days after the fire,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s been any malicious intent, it’s been a misunderstanding. There’s been a lot of miscommunication, a lot of misunderstanding, there’s been a lot of assumptions made about things that may or may not have been going on. I’m not blaming anybody.”

“We had some misinformation from the start that WATCO wasn’t doing anything as far as preparing to fix the crane from the fire to this point, because we had an April 4 date to meet. Come to find out, they had everything documented, they had their two insurance companies, they’ve had adjustors up there,” District 1 Supervisor John Arnold said.

“But we as a board of supervisors didn’t have any idea they were doing things, and they didn’t have any idea that we were displeased with what they were doing, because they were steadily doing things,” he said. “We had a really great meeting. I just think there was maybe a lot of loose talk to start with, but they’re going to fix the crane; they’re going to get it up and running.”

“We got an update on the crane repair,” Board of Supervisors President Richard George said.

Both George and Arnold said WATCO also agreed to forego receiving the $10,000 it would receive when the crane is not operating, and will pay the full lease.

“WATCO, they’re national known company; they’re a very good company,” Arnold said. “They said they want to be a good partner in Warren County, they want to stay here some length of time.”

Mansfield declined to comment on the meeting, deferring all questions to port commission chairman Margaret Gilmer. Repeated attempts to contact Gilmer were unsuccessful.

“The crane fire has never stopped production at the port,” Maxwell said. “I went and rented two additional cranes the day the crane burned. We have not missed one customer; there has not been any revenue loss to the community whatsoever. As of Wednesday, we have handled 18,899 tons of material since Feb. 15.

“We have not at any point blocked access to the port,” he said. “We can’t do that.”

He said one person showed up at the port to look at the crane, adding he was asked to wait “until the insurance adjustor arrived and they could go in together. He was delayed one day.”

Maxwell said representatives for an engineering company also looked at the crane, but no one asked.

He said the repaired crane will have a new cab.

“We have to have a new cab. For the function of the crane to unload barges, you have to have that guy in the cab so he can go out over the water and see what he’s doing,” he said, adding the crane will be operated by a radio control instead of joy sticks, which were used in the old machine.

“Radio is not new technology, it’s been around 12 to 13 years. It’s been tested and used all over the world,” he said.

“There is no contention, no animosity between us and the county,” he said. “We had a misunderstanding about the chronology of the repair. There was no malicious intent; simply a misunderstanding.

“We have expressed out dedication to Vicksburg and this facility, and invested several hundred thousand dollars in the port to show our commitment.”