The Vicksburg Convention Center is in the beginning stages of a much-needed upgrade.

By all accounts, the VCC’s escalator, which is going on 20 years old, is due for some major improvements, and at Monday’s meeting, the Board of Mayor and Alderman began the process by approving a consulting proposal to evaluate it, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

“In the past, I think that a lot of the repair work has been ignored, and we’re paying for it now. The good news is that we’re on top of it,” he said.

The roughly $800,000 he said the city has budgeted for the project was not an expected cost but one that Flaggs said needed to take precedence.

“It was a shift in funding,” he said. “We prioritized the escalator because if the escalator goes out, so goes the convention center and its opportunity to continue to attract conferences and get people in there. The smaller elevator would not suffice.

“We were going to put the money toward something, and we just prioritized it toward (the escalator).”

Annette Kirklin, executive director of the VCC, said the escalator has a long history of causing problems, especially right before big events.

“We’ve paid thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in overtime and weekend repair work on this escalator,” she said of the VCC’s attempts to get it working for major productions.

“We have a maintenance contract but if it happens after hours or they have to order a part that needed to be here yesterday, it’s a comedy of errors. It’s just very, very frustrating.”

She added the VCC had $50,000 in unexpected repairs last year and a “big portion” was due to issues with the escalator.

“If an escalator can be mean, it’s mean,” she said. “Because of how old it is, they say don’t turn it off because chances are it won’t turn on.”

She explained that the escalator not functioning has cost the convention center events in the past.

“We have lost an event because it stopped working on them twice, and they thought we did it to them on purpose,” she said. “It’s just not something we can control.”

The consulting firm hired to evaluate the escalator, Lerch Bates Inc., will “give us a recommendation on what is needed to repair it or replace it,” Flaggs said.

“We’re spending more money per year than it would be worth to just replace it or give it a major repair, based on the recommendation. We’ll take the most cost effective route. It’s costing us far more than it would to repair or place it.”

Kirklin estimated the process would not take long, and when completed a recommendation would be made to the VCC and city officials.