Representatives for ESG Operations Inc. will oversee repairs and upgrades to the electrical system at Vicksburg’s water treatment plant on Haining Road.

But how the city will pay for the work depends on its contract with the company.

At a Friday meeting about the water plant with ESG representatives, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. directed City Attorney Nancy Thomas and Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman to meet again with representatives for ESG to review the contract.

The mayor wants to upgrade the electrical system at the plant in the wake of a power failure that left the city without water for a day and put water customers under a boil water notice for four.

Thomas said she will have to review the city’s contract with ESG to determine whether the city will reimburse the company for the making the upgrades or whether it will have to go out for bids for a contract to do the project.

The city has $6.15 million set aside for capital improvements in its fiscal 2017 budget for the water plant. Part of the city’s contract requires it to pay ESG $100,000 a month for plant maintenance, part of which could go toward some improvements.

Scott Murphy, ESG regional manager, said the company will work with the city on the upgrades.

“What’s unique about ya’ll’s situation is that the plant as it exists has to continue to run during the upgrades. This type work is much more complex than just building a plant and throwing a switch,” Murphy said.

“You’ve got to work in sections and segments, and what we’ll work on with our staff and our engineers (is) to set the phases,” he said.

Murphy suggested the city seek state and federal grants for the upgrades.

“There’s money out there; you just have to know what doors to knock on,” he said.

Don North, who manages the plant here for ESG, said a work plan for the upgrades is being completed and should be sent to Van Norman within the next two weeks.

“The power is the major issue,” North said. “From the first day we’ve been here, we’ve been talking about the power.”

He said an electric company will visit the water plant next week and tour it. He said the company recently did an upgrade and voltage conversion at another plant operated by ESG.

“We’ve also done the field assessment for every piece of equipment in service,” Murphy said, adding the report should be finished in 10 to 14 days.

“What I want is for us to get started getting the plant in a better situation than it is now, regardless of whose fault it is,” Flaggs said. “Every time they say water, they hang it around my neck, and I want to get something started.”

The Friday afternoon meeting with ESG came in the wake of an Aug. 29 incident in which a tree falling on a power line knocked out power to the city’s well fields, causing a drop in pressure at the plant. It was later responsible for causing the plant’s four pumps to shut down, leaving the city without water for almost 12 hours Aug. 30. The city was under a boil water notice for four days.