The roof on the Vicksburg Convention Center is going to be replaced.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday authorized City Clerk Walter Osborne to advertise for bids on the project, which is estimated to be close to $1 million. The total cost, City Attorney Nancy Thomas said, involves fixing other problems connected with the roof, adding the bid specifications will include several alternate bids.

“We’ll have to see what the bids are and do what we can with the money we have,” she said.

According to a report from JH&H Architects of Jackson, which was hired to examine the roof, the estimate to repair the roof and other related problems is $919,000. The city has allocated $1 million for the work.

The report indicated there were places on the 18-year-old building’s roof where the flashing, the sheet metal used in waterproofing the roof, was either improperly installed or not installed at all.

Besides replacing the roof, the report summary recommended replacing the roof drains with new drains, elevating the building’s heating and air conditioning units to allow drainage and installing new flashing on the center’s high and low roofs.

It also recommends replacing the sills and glazing to windows on the center’s south wall, entrance and the north and west walls, replacing the skylight and provide a new drop canopy in green metal to match the roof. The work on the windows and a leak on the northwest side of the building will have to be fixed before the roof is installed, Thomas said.

The roof has never been replaced since the convention center was built in 1997. It was repaired several times under previous administrations and has reached the point where it was no longer feasible to make repairs.

“We’re extremely happy about it and counting down the days when we can see the progress and see the results,” convention center executive director Annette Kirklin said of the board’s action.

She said the south windows will have a special tint, which will help keep the building cooler.

Built at a total cost of $12 million, the Vicksburg Convention Center was opened in August 1997.

After the center was built, the city and Yates Construction Co. became embroiled in a dispute over workmanship on the center, which included cracks in the concrete floor of the exhibition hall, uneven corridors, the primer and paint used on the joints and air conditioning ducts, the hall’s ceiling, brick masonry and the installation of flashing. The dispute was resolved through arbitration, with a ruling in favor of the contractor.