Parking garage updates are still on hold as city employees and engineers work to get all the information together.

“We will have security cameras that will go in, and we will have mirrors that will go up at the corners and then we’ll have lights that will go up,” Vicksburg Main Street executive director Kim Hopkins said.

Independent electrical engineers evaluated the two downtown parking garages to determine how many and what type of cameras and lighting fixtures the garages need. City landscape architect Jeff Richardson said the IT department is working with the engineers to finalize a contract document.

“I think there is a holdup on the cameras that they’re trying to get information on for the bid documents, and it’s taking a little longer than they originally thought,” Richardson said.

The original plan was to have all the information by Oct. 1, but it has now been pushed until early December. The city department and building maintenance have worked to temporarily improve the lighting in the garages by replacing all the blown bulbs. Downtown merchants like Lurline Simmons have been positive about using them enhancements to the garages when talking about there use for events like Hit the Bricks.

For lighting and cameras the city will allow companies to place bids on the project. Building maintenance will install the mirrors. Richardson hopes they can open the project up for bids soon. It will take 30 days of advertising before they read the submitted bids, and then at the next board meeting they will award the project to one of the biding companies. Once they finalize paperwork and insurance with the awarded bidder, which could take 15-20 days, they can get to work on the project.

“It’s not a small project,” Richardson said. “It’s not something we can go out and fix real quick. I mean we’re rewiring two buildings essentially.”

Another project coming to downtown is the addition of plaque-like tablets in front of possibly 30 to 40 buildings on four or five different walking trails that cover downtown.

“We’re doing the sidewalk decals that are directional markers, directional brochures and these placards that talk about the buildings, the history of the building and people who lived in those buildings,” Richardson said.

A grant came through from the National Park Service a year ago, but the details have just come through recently. Hopkins and other city officials then met with a graphic designer who is working on the plans now for the wording and design of the markers.

Richardson said it has taken some time to come to fruition because of the federal funding, but once the red tape is taken care of it should come together pretty quickly.

The trailhead is planned to be at The Old Depot Museum where they will offer the brochures indicating the trails as well as QR codes.