The Board of Mayor and Aldermen are seeking $500,000 in state bond money for a tourism project that includes a splash pad on the community garden property at the Vicksburg Municipal Airport on U.S. 61 South.

The resolution approved by the board Friday said the money will be used “in paying costs associated with recruiting, promotion, construction and/or development of tourism projects in the city.”

Besides the splash pad, the money will fund projects refurbishing the city’s two downtown parking garages by repairing the elevators and restriping the parking area.

Assistant public works director Jeff Richardson said the elevator work and the restriping is another part of improvements to the parking areas.

“We did the electricity, got the roofs done, now we’re working on the elevator and cleaning,” he said.
Founded in 2015, the community garden at the Vicksburg Municipal Airport has been transformed into a park with a walking track and playground equipment.

Flaggs said the splash pad at the airport will cost the city about $40,000 to build.
When completed, it will give the city two splash pads, one in south Vicksburg and the other at Catfish Row on Levee Street. The splash pad at Catfish Row was rebuilt in 2018.

Flaggs said the pad at the community garden “will be convenient for children who live in that area who can’t come downtown.”

The mayor said the work at the parking garages will not include more surveillance cameras.

In another matter, the board authorized Flaggs to sign pre-award documents for a $2.8 million National Resource Conservation Service grant to help fund the cost of an estimated $3 million bank stabilization project for Hennessey Bayou. The city’s share of the project cost is about $600,000.

The proposed project will stabilize the bank by repairing problems that occurred during and since the 2011 spring Mississippi River flood, which crested on May 19, 2011, at 57.1 feet — 14.1 feet above flood stage and nine-tenths of a foot above the Great Flood of 1927.

Long-term erosion caused by the flood resulted in the collapse of the Kemp Bottom Road bridge in July 2017, and threatens the nearby Warrenton Road bridge.

The city has $3.5 million in Mississippi Department of Transportation funds to replace the bridge once the bank is stabilized.