Its efforts at state funding exhausted, the Vicksburg Municipal Airport Board will turn to City Hall for money to build individual hangars it hopes will boost revenue, members said Thursday.

But while the city is on board with other aspects of the $850,000 total funding request made by the board last week, Mayor Laurence Leyens said he is not inclined to make T-hangars part of the city’s 2006-07 budget.

&#8220What I told them is I would support rebuilding a terminal. … We need to rebuild that terminal and make it reflective of the city. That’s a city asset,” Leyens said, endorsing the proposed $250,000 initiative. He added, however that the $500,000 request for hangars to rent to paying customers at the 56-year-old site on U.S. 61 South was &#8220at the bottom of the list” in ongoing budget talks.

The city must adopt a budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year by Oct. 1. Overall, requests for funding have come in at about $3 million more than the $27.9 million expected to be available.

That’s a lower &#8220overage” than usual, and the request for big money for the airport is a first in almost 10 years.

The T-hangars, along with a $150,000 request for repaving an apron in front of an existing hangar, could be tacked on to the city’s plan for the fall to OK a $10 million-$12 million bond issue, Leyens said. The board may also assist in finding a grant for the hangars, or match any grant money that is secured.

&#8220We really have not had that discussion,” he said. &#8220We feel that that’s really their challenge.”

The airport, which landed a $650,000 state grant five years ago, was snubbed for state money for the hangars in June, when its proposal for $435,000 through the Mississippi Department of Transportation was rejected.

At its regular monthly meeting, the board also raised the option of allowing private contractors to build the first set of hangars for individual planes at the airport. The builder would collect the monthly rent from the space, but even modest revenue from fuel sales to the additional planes the hangars are expected to attract would be a net gain to coffers that have dwindled by about $500-$800 per month on little more than necessary day-to-day operations, said Kimble Slaton, board president.

&#8220All of this is pretty much what it takes to run this place,” said Slaton as he looked over the airport’s balance sheet. &#8220We need to generate another thousand dollars a month pretty quick.”

VKS Manager Frank May has said about 20 people have expressed interest in renting T-hangars at the airport if they’re built, including some locals who already rent space at other airports.

&#8220If the city says no (to the T-hangars), it’s open season,” said board Secretary Jay Kilroy. &#8220We’re going to be forced to lease it out and let a private person do it.”

The VKS Airport Board was appointed a year ago after a lengthy court battle to keep the site open for business. Eventually, the state Supreme Court ruled a 2-1 city vote in 1998 to close the airport in favor of enhancing use of Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport in Mound was legal. However, Leyens and the two aldermen now in office said they would keep VKS open to serve area industries.

Neither airport has been a big budget item for local governments. Both require minimal subsidies and, from time-to-time, matching funds for grants. Vicksburg joined in partnership with the Warren County Board of Supervisors, the City of Tallulah and the Madison Parish Police Jury to build the Mound airport in 1982.

VKS revenue totaled $29,379 in May but fell to $15,649 in June and $16,153 last month, just enough to pay bills and insurance, buy fuel for resale to planes that stop in and to keep the terminal open.

Currently, the board owns two communal hangars, which house about five of the 18 small aircraft regularly kept at the airport, and another hangar which has been leased by Wayne Brown.

Brown has maintained a claim of ownership on the hangar, but the board has rejected this claim absent any proof of deed or title and moved in its only official action Thursday to remove Brown and offer a lease for the space to Phil Lawson of Lawson Aviation for $200 a month.

&#8220Our lawyer has told us that hangar is ours,” Slaton said.

A fourth hangar on the site is owned by the Mississippi River Commission, and is set to be transferred to the board when the commission restores it to operating condition, May said.