Improvements to the 112-year-old Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Depot on Levee Street have been placed on hold after another attempt by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to hire a contractor failed.

The board Thursday rejected a bid from Historic Preservation of Yazoo because the company failed to provide the necessary documents required under the bid specifications, marking the third time the city has failed to find a contractor to repair and stabilize the depot and repair its elevator.

The project is funded in part by $471,475 in federal Transportation Alternative Program funds, which are administered by MDOT and cover 80 percent of the project’s cost. The board’s decision to reject the bid by Historic Preservation of Yazoo was contingent on approval by the Mississippi Transportation Commission.

“It’s pretty sad,” said Dave Benway, director and curator of the Depot Museum, the building’s sole tenant.

“This is going on two years; you would think they would figure out a way to break the package up so they could repair the elevator separately. It (the project) keeps hanging on and hanging on.”

Benway said the museum is one of the top five attractions in the city.

“You would think the city would take pride in it (the depot). It deserves better.”

The depot project involves replacing ornamental woodwork on the building’s exterior, repairing the building’s 48 windows, painting the depot’s exterior, replacing its elevator, repairing the building’s cupola on the roof and renovations to the building’s front door to make it handicap-accessible.

The board in March rejected two bids for the project because they were over budget, and sent the plans back to the project architect to be modified.

In September, the board received four bids for the work, eventually awarding the project to Paramount Construction of Jackson in October after the low bid by Washington County Properties LLC of Greenville was rejected because company officials failed to follow the proper procedure when they submitted the bid.

The board in November rescinded its decision awarding the project to Paramount after the Mississippi Transportation Commission rejected it because the city had not advertised for bids in the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson.

The city bought the three-story depot in 2001 for $295,000.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation in 2007 awarded the city a $1.65 million grant to renovate the building, and in 2009 allocated $250,000 in stimulus funds for the project.

Work on the depot restoration began in 2010, but was halted in the spring of 2011 when the Mississippi River dumped 4 feet of water into the building as it reached record heights in Vicksburg, cresting on May 19 at 57.1, 14.1 feet above flood stage and nine-tenths of a foot above the Great Flood of 1927.

The depot became a national symbol for the flood in Vicksburg and the backdrop for media coverage during the disaster. The renovation work resumed in June 2011.

The flood forced the board in 2011 to approve two amendments to the original renovation contract with contractor Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. of Greenwood totaling $56,000 to repair.