A transportation museum at the Levee Street Depot will not be ready in January, but is moving forward at “a snail’s pace,” its promoter said Monday.

Artifacts and exhibits depicting the golden years of riverboat and rail travel along the Mississippi are rolling in, said Lamar Roberts, who owns the Vicksburg Battlefield Museum and who proposed Vicksburg Transportation Museum. But the pieces of history won’t go on display until the museum’s board of directors reaches an agreement with the City of Vicksburg on use of the city-owned building, protected as a landmark by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

A $2 million to $3 million restoration of the 101-year-old building, purchased in 2001 under the Central Business District Urban Renewal Plan, cannot begin until the parties reach a contract, which has hit bumps in the road over language, Roberts said.

The depot was a key freight and passenger station for north-south lines and until 1974 housed the offices of Illinois Central Railroad.

Plans for the museum formalized in December 2006, when it was approved for a $1.6 million grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation. The museum’s board of directors is responsible for raising $330,000 to match MDOT’s grant and one for $53,900 from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Roberts and board members are courting donors as they seek the $195,000 still needed to match grants.

Sponsors outside Vicksburg have accounted for most of the $135,000 collected thus far, Roberts said.

“We’ve had very little local support in financing, but we’ve had gigantic local support on artifacts and memorabilia,” he said.

Exhibits are lined up, Roberts said, for railroad and riverboat displays, and for the Central Mississippi Aviation Museum that will span the top floor.

The museum already has 200 model train cars and 20 engines for an HO-scale model railroad display, track for which was donated by the board’s attorney, retired state legislator Stone Barefield.

Also acquired are 1,500 volumes for a library and an extensive collection of riverboat photographs.

City Attorney Nancy Thomas said Vicksburg officials were waiting for assurance that exhibits in the museum would be permanent.

Language remains a stumbling block for attorneys working on the contract, Roberts said, but talks have not reached impasse. “No one is ready to throw up their hands,” he said.

Once the contract is signed, the museum board will advertise for bids from private contractors to renovate the building, purchased under the Central Business District Urban Renewal plan.

“It’s a very beautiful, historic building, and it’s been let run down by its previous owners,” Roberts said.

City crews have already performed some cleanup work inside the building, which has also housed a restaurant, a kidney dialysis center and a hair salon.

The museum received the blessing of Warren County supervisors, who approved a donation of $20,000 to match grants.

“They might hit some snags,” said North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield, indicating an agreement with the City of Vicksburg might not be reached until city officials are confident the nonprofit organization has raised what it needs to match state and federal grants.

The grants remain available until December 2008.

Roberts founded the battlefield museum, now adjacent to Battlefield Inn, as a naval museum and it was first located downtown.

The Levee Street Depot is at the center of a renovation area at City Front where murals, an art park and splash fountain are already in place and a playground and Corps of Engineers interpretive center are in the works. The MV Mississippi IV, centerpiece of the Corps display, was being moved into place today.