Mayor George Flaggs Jr. is in Washington Thursday meeting with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials to discuss getting federal funding for several city projects.

The visit is Flaggs’ fourth since January.

“I’m going to talk about money and the funds that were appropriated in the omnibus budget bill, and try to make Vicksburg a priority, because once the money’s appropriated, it has to be recommended by the Corps for spending,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to do, get in on the worksheet for the Corps and make certain our needs are priorities.

“We have worked hard over the last couple of years trying to convince Sen. (Thad) Cochran and the other congressional leaders how important these projects are.”

The bill, which was signed March 28 by President Donald Trump, includes $70 million for the Corps of Engineers for funding environmental infrastructure that would allow the Corps to dedicate some of the money for sewer system, wastewater treatment and water supply improvements in Mississippi.

Flaggs wants to get money for water treatment, wastewater treatment and the 592 Project, which is the name for the city’s project to install an auxiliary water line from the city’s water treatment plant on Haining Road to provide a backup waterline for the city.

Flaggs said in March the project was “ready to go; we’ve got to find the money (match). We don’t want to go until we know we’ve got the money available.

“I hope to have that ready in the next 60 days, now that we’ve got some ways to generate money for it.” The city’s match for the project is $2 million.

“The items that we will be talking about will be the 592 project, the Kemp Bottom Road bridge and the multimodal port, and then water treatment and wastewater,” Flaggs said.

Estimated at $125 million, the multimodal port is the key project in Flaggs’ proposed $55 million capital improvements plan, with $28.5 million of the proposed $55 million capital program dedicated as potential matching funds for the port project.

If built, the proposed port would generate 500 jobs, he said, adding the city is willing to commit $1 million toward planning and construction of a new port, “Because we can’t just say we want it, we’ve got to prove it will work.”