Supervisors fell short of agreeing on a choice to fill the unexpired term of a city-county appointee to the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, but did agree their selection should have extensive experience in the tourism industry.

During an informal meeting Thursday, the board heard from Ann Jones and Liz Porter, two members of a tourism committee formed by the Vicksburg Warren Community Alliance. They stressed the experience angle in light of a three-year downturn in visitor numbers.

The seat, that of Jo Wilson, who resigned last week from the 11-member volunteer board, is the only shared appointment. Other members are appointed by city and county boards, five each. Wilson’s term runs out in August 2007.

VCVB was created in 1972 to support the tourism industry and Jones, an operator of Mississippi River Tours, and Porter, said the county needs to agree on an experienced candidate because of what they called below par efforts at marketing Vicksburg as a tourist attraction.

Previous marketing strategies have been focused too narrowly, Jones said, and are ineffective. Both women cited recent marketing strategies by Tunica County that court visitors from within 200 miles as more effective.

&#8220There is an untapped market of tourists out there,” Jones said.

Figures tracked by the VCVB showed 270,080 visitors in 2005 to the four attractions in Vicksburg for which the bureau does some type of marketing. While that represented a 26 percent drop from 2004, a 12.9 percent increase in revenue from the 1 percent hotel and restaurant tax that pays for VCVB operations was recorded.

Those gains have been attributed to the influx of an estimated 1,100 evacuees staying in hotels and visiting restaurants during September and October after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

As for leading candidates, supervisors named three of them at Thursday’s session. Elmaree Bradley, supervisor of the Mississippi Welcome Center on Washington Street, is believed to have strong support with both the city and county. She also sits on the boards of the Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce and the Alliance.

The others were Betty Bullard, operator of the George Washington Ball House, and Larry Stewart, operator of the Delta Cleaners on Openwood Street.

Reached late Thursday, Mayor Laurence Leyens said county and city officials will discuss an Alliance-devised list of nine potential candidates today, adding that if Bradley is not named to this post, she still may be named to either of two city-appointed seats later this year.

District 4 Supervisor and board president Carl Flanders said a discussion with the city could still take place today, in spite of not having that list or knowing a full list of names.

However, Flanders said the county &#8220would be hard-pressed to find a better qualified candidate than Bradley.”

A majority of supervisors indicated April 17 as the likely date for official action.

The VCVB, in turmoil in recent months, has hired Compass Facility Management in a contract that began earlier this month to develop and put in place a marketing strategy.

At times, Wilson had voted against that change. Her resignation followed that of former chairman Curt Follmer in October. Also this week, Clara Stamps, who had served as interim director for nearly a year and had applied for the executive directorship, resigned.

In other business, the board heard from Warren County Economic Development Foundation executive director Jim Pilgrim on the Port Commission’s effort to apply for loans to pay for much-needed repairs to the overhead crane and T-dock at the Port of Vicksburg.

Pilgrim said he will hold off any formal requests to apply for any revolving port loans from the Mississippi Development Authority because of unanswered details about rural development grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The commission still does not know if it will receive the full $850,000 from it and another grant through the Delta Regional Authority, Pilgrim said.

The repairs to the crane and T-dock will cost $1.9 million. After grants secured are factored in, and if the commission gets the full grant awards from the DRA and USDA, a balance of $489,394 would be left.

Originally, Pilgrim spoke with supervisors about a $1.2 million revolving port loan to be part of the financing mix. That request, if made, will be $750,000 because any grant amount above the projected balance would reduce the port revolving loan.

Later in the meeting, the board approved a request from elections commissioner Johnny Brewer to hire and train at least 30 additional poll workers for the June 6 elections.

Brewer also suggested having a &#8220dress rehearsal” for the elections, the first held with new touch-screen voting machines. The date of such an exercise is not set, but is expected in April or May due to new roles for poll workers and managers.

Among them is the job of the &#8220encoder,” or a person who programs the ballot into each ballot card.

The board also examined preliminary job descriptions for a field officer who would be hired to help enforce the county’s subdivision ordinance.

County administrator John Smith presented a plan to simplify an item in the present permitting officer’s job description, completing quarterly reports to both the emergency management director and the county engineer.

Flanders and District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon voiced continued opposition to that structure, based on the belief that an inspections department should exist separate from emergency management.