One-year-old Damon White II watches from the toddler room of the Christian Center for Educational Excellence as fellow students parade around the school off Halls Ferry Road in celebration of July 4. Damon is the son of Jennifer Odom of Vicksburg.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[7/3/03]Independence Day weekend events include songs and fireworks and re-enactors and more bigger and better than last year when attendance was underestimated by thousands.

Friday events will center on the old Levee Street Depot downtown beginning with singers at 7 p.m., followed by the University of Southern Mississippi Holiday Orchestra at 8 and fireworks as soon as skies turn dark.

For those unable to attend, events will be on Vicksburg Video cable channel 23, and, for those wishing to view events from elsewhere along the city’s western border, the music and narration from downtown can be tuned in on WQBC-AM 1420.

After being suspended for several years, public fireworks on the Fourth resumed in Vicksburg during the 1976 bicentennial, but were suspended again a few years later. When resumed in 2002, the prediction was about 3,000 people would attend. But police were overwhelmed, and started today making arrangements to handle the traffic. The weather forecast includes a 40 percent chance for scattered thunderstorms.

Community volunteer Frances Koury arranged the 2002 show and is in charge again. Sponsors are the City of Vicksburg, Ameristar Casino-Hotel and Coca-Cola. Any hillside site with a view of the sky above City Front will provide good viewing. Vendor booths will be set up along portions of Jackson and Grove streets hills.

The U.S. Coast Guard will not allow pleasure boats along some parts of the Yazoo Diversion Canal as a safety measure.

Performers starting at 7 include Nathaniel Williams and the Mighty Train of Gospel, Drs. Mike and Clarissa Davis, Riley Harper, Linda Powell, Dorothy Brasfield, Bob Alvarado, Mitchell Beauman, Kelley Massey, George Mayer, Charlotte Price, Leila Price, Marcia Weaver, Larry Gawronski and Judy Buys.

Former Mississippi first lady Pat Fordice will be special guest.

On Saturday and Sunday at the Old Court House Museum, a group of re-enactors from Texas will portray Confederate soldiers stationed in Vicksburg during the summer of 1862. Their camp will be open to the public.

And, at McRaven Tour Home, 1445 Harrison St., the annual re-enactment, including a mock skirmish, will be Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m. both days.

Friday is a holiday for both city and county governments. City garbage collection will continue as scheduled, but cans must be in place for pickup by 7 a.m. No county garbage collection will take place Friday, but it will resume on the next regularly scheduled day.

Also this weekend, the City of Vicksburg will again place roll-off containers city residents can use for disposal of extra rubbish. Containers are to be in place Saturday in the southern part of the city, at these locations:

Oak Street between Speed and Fairground streets

Corner of Hanley and Clark streets

Fire Station on Indiana Avenue

Airport on U.S. 61 South

Neither hazardous waste nor large appliances will be accepted, but residents may call the city’s action line, 636-3411, to request a pickup of appliances. Tires may be taken to the County Barn on U.S. 61 North.

Vicksburg police will be out in full force during the holiday weekend, a department release said. They will be conducting roadblocks that include sobriety checkpoints in an effort to identify and arrest people driving under the influence of alcohol or violating other laws, it added.