[10/25/02]The Board of Mayor and Aldermen can close the city-owned Vicksburg Municipal Airport and it was not “arbitrary nor capricious” in its 1998 decision to shut down that facility, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

“I felt that it was the right and just thing to do in February 1998 and I feel that in upholding that decision, the Supreme Court did the just and right thing,” said former Mayor Robert Walker, who voted along with South Ward Alderman Sam Habeeb to close the airport on U.S. 61 South.

A flurry of legal actions that began with the board’s vote four years ago took another leap Thursday with the state’s highest court’s reversal of Warren County Circuit Court Judge Frank Vollor’s injunction against closing the 55-year-old airport.

The legal struggle began when 18 area businessmen sued the city after the board voted 2-1 to close the municipal airport in favor of a new regional facility in Mound.

Ken Harper, the attorney for the plaintiffs, did not return phone calls.

In all, six lawsuits have been filed by attorneys for both sides. The suits and multiple appeals and cross appeals were consolidated in Thursday’s decision.

In addition to ruling that the city could close the airport, the court found that the lower court erred in finding that the city must create an airport authority in order to fund the Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport in Mound. Vollor had ruled that an airport authority was needed for a Mississippi entity to fund an airport in another state and that the city’s municipal airport remain open until an “adequate” replacement is provided.

Vicksburg, which is a one-fourth owner of VTR along with Warren County, Tallulah and Madison Parish, discontinued funding of the Mound airport from the time the first lawsuit was filed until the authority was formed in 1999. Warren County also held funding for the airport to avoid being caught up in the suits, but also resumed funding after the authority was formed.

Warren County has never been part of the litigation.

The question remaining now is if the current city administration, which took office last summer, will uphold the previous board’s vote to close that airport.

Mayor Laurence Leyens and South Ward Aldermen Sid Beauman both said they have not made a decision regarding the municipal airport.

“I don’t know,” said Beauman. “I haven’t given it a lot of thought.”

North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young, who is the only member of the current administration who was in office in 1998 and was the lone vote against closing the airport, said the decision now must be made by the new board.

“My position has not changed since the beginning. I still support keeping the airport open,” Young said.

Leyens said it is his position that the city should not put taxpayer money into any improvements at the municipal airport, but may not close that facility at this time.

“As long as there is no other demand for that land, we’re not going to push them off,” Leyens said.

In voting to close the airport, Walker and Habeeb said the land would be used to develop an industrial park. At the time, all sites along Haining Road at the Vicksburg Harbor were in use and, as is the case today, there was no land for expansion.

Today, however, the closings of some local industries have left some vacant sites.

Walker said Thursday he still feels the airport property would be best used as an industrial development space.

“The best use of that site is to convert it into an industrial park located inside the city’s limits to help raise the city’s tax base,” Walker said.

The plaintiffs in the case, some of whom own businesses near the municipal airport, have said closing the airport would hurt their businesses which rely on the facility for transportations. Others also complained about using Mississippi tax dollars to fund an airport in Louisiana.

In his dissenting opinion, Presiding Justice C.R. “Chuck” McRae wrote of the 4-1-1 opinion that it was “disingenuous” for the court to hold that the City of Vicksburg has the authority to funnel public money our of state without controls. In all, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court in five questions and upheld three on three issues.

“It was a controversial decision,” said Walker, who lost his bid for re-election last year. “And it made some permanent enemies for me and my family.”

While the vote was controversial, the legal battle that followed raised the stakes when it drew in opinions from former Gov. Kirk Fordice, a strong supporter of VTR, and U.S. District 2 Rep. Bennie Thompson, who sided with those who said the regional airport in Mound was unsafe.

Still others cited deficiencies at the municipal airport in support of the decision to close that facility.