[9/10/03]Apparently ending negotiations to take over the airport on U.S. 61 South, attorneys for LeTourneau Inc. say the city should maintain general operations of the Vicksburg Municipal Airport .

In a letter dated Tuesday to city attorney Nancy Thomas, LeTourneau vice president and general counsel S. Maria Narisi wrote that the underlying obligations of the public airport must remain with the City of Vicksburg. Narisi also recommended that the city renegotiate terms of a 1997 agreement for the regional airport in Mound to allow the city to fund the municipal airport.

LeTourneau officials began working with the city last month to find an alternative to the city operating the airport, including the possibility of the company buying or leasing that facility. Since July 1, the airport has been operated under a month-to-month contract by a private airport manager.

City officials met late Tuesday afternoon after receiving the letter, but made no decision about the municipal airport’s fate. South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman said they are now looking to gather more information before proceeding.

“It means to me that they’re not going to take over the airport and that’s about all I’ve had time to think about,” Beauman said.

Beauman added that he expects a decision in the next two weeks.

Litigation over the 55-year-old municipal airport ended last year when the Mississippi Supreme Court cleared the way for the new city administration to rethink or enforce a 1998 vote to close that facility in favor of the Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport in Mound. VTR is owned by four governments Vicksburg, Warren County, Madison Parish and Tallulah and operated under an agreement modified in 1997.

Terms of that agreement cited by city officials prohibit Vicksburg from funding the municipal airport, VKS, and stipulate its closing. The provision was pointed out by officials after a $650,000 grant was identified by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove for improvements at VKS, but would require an application from a government body such as the city.

In a previous letter, city officials stated that amending that agreement was not likely.

Complicating the matter further are repeated, overt threats by LeTourneau to close its offshore oil rig-manufacturing operations, which employ about 1,000 people, if the airport is shut down.

“The unavailability of VKS would make business in Vicksburg uninviting,” Narisi wrote.

Narisi also wrote that Rowan Companies Inc., the parent company of LeTourneau, is willing to commit more than $1 million in additional capital improvements and hire more employees at the local shipyard if the city will seek the state grant. City officials had asked that LeTourneau agree to hold the city harmless and indemnify Vicksburg from any lawsuits resulting from seeking those funds, but no mention was made of that in Narisi’s letter.

Other than leasing or selling the airport to LeTourneau, city officials said they were also interested in replacing it with a new airport at Ceres. That idea, which would have required FAA funding, has not taken shape.

LeTourneau has a 61-year presence in Warren County, but shut down after building about 50 rigs. Since reopening eight years ago, the company has built three of its largest class of rigs, is now building a smaller-class rig and has contracts for more. Each sells for about $200 million.

LeTourneau and Rowan executives have said the 1995 decision to reopen the plant was based partly on the city’s assurances that VKS would remain open, but three years later, the city board voted 2-1 to close that airport.

That vote set off four years of legal battles after 18 local businesses and business owners including LeTourneau sued the city. North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young had voted against closure and is the only one of the three officials still in office.

Young has said she may change her mind and vote to close the facility now, but has also said the jobs at LeTourneau will be a big factor in that decision.