Vicksburg city board approves $9.3M in capital improvements

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - The city of Vicksburg will spend $9.3 million on street paving, a new fire station and improvements to city buildings and recreation facilities.

Those are among the projects included in a capital improvements program approved Monday by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

"This plan is flexible. That way, if we find something that is so necessary that it takes priority over something else, we can include it," Mayor George Flaggs Jr. told The Vicksburg Post (http://bit.ly/1u9RqRu ).

He said the board will approve a bond issue for the projects later.

Once the bonds are issued, the city will have three years to spend it on the projects.

The program is the first of a two-phase capital improvements plan estimated at $18 million. The second phase will not be initiated during the current administration, Flaggs said.

"It will be up to the next administration whether they want to draw down the remaining $8 million," he said. "We don't want to draw down more than we can afford.

The project list includes parking area improvements at ballparks and other city-owned areas.

Street paving is the largest expense at $4.6 million.

The board in January approved a $143,500 contract with Applied Research Associates Inc. of Champaign, Illinois, to do a street survey, which will be used to develop a priority list for street paving in the future.

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Information from: The Vicksburg Post, http://www.vicksburgpost.com