[11/6/03]A new resident heading to the Governor’s Mansion may have an effect on a pending grant application to fund improvements and keep the city-owned airport open.

The city board voted Monday to seek the $650,000 state grant offered through the Mississippi Development Authority by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, but officials say they believe Haley Barbour’s victory Tuesday could change all that.

“I think it’s very likely to have an impact,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens. “I believe there is a chance, with the election results, that the grant will not get funded.”

A spokesman for Barbour was not immediately available, and he has taken no public position in a decades-long rift involving the future of Vicksburg’s airport.

Sherry Vance, director of communication for the MDA, said the grant application will be thoroughly reviewed before a decision is made. She did not say how long that process might take.

The application was turned in to MDA this week, and Barbour does not take office for two months, but he has been publicly supported by former Gov. Kirk Fordice, a high-profile player in the airport debate.

Fordice has long supported the regional airport in Mound, La., and favored closing the Vicksburg Municipal Airport. City officials say that without the grant, there will be no money for the improvements at the municipal airport and that its fate could be in question.

“I hope the governor-elect will look into all the information and at what’s best for the community,” said North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young.

Young cast the lone vote five years ago to keep the municipal airport open, but has recently said she does not favor spending $3.3 million of taxpayer money on that airport. She said Wednesday that she will “wait to decide” after finding out if the grant will be approved.

While city officials are not holding their breath on the grant, Jimmy Heidel, director of the state economic development authority under Fordice, said he believes the grant will get approved before the end of the year.

“If it’s got the requirements and the economic criteria why wouldn’t it?” Heidel said.

Four years ago when Fordice left office, Heidel returned to Vicksburg to head the Warren County Economic Development Foundation, Chamber Commerce and Port Commission. While those groups had leadership roles in developing the Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport as a replacement for Vicksburg Municipal, their positions changed this year.

Heidel said he does not believe Fordice will try to influence Barbour against the municipal airport.

“He doesn’t want to lose 1,100 jobs here either,” Heidel said.

Executives of LeTourneau Inc., one of the plaintiffs in a five-year legal fight over the city airport, have said the city airport is important to the company’s offshore oil rig manufacturing operation just south of the airport, and that jobs could be lost if the city closes the airport.

While city officials have said it has never been made clear to them that LeTourneau will close if the airport is shut down, they said they want to take no chances. LeTourneau has promised $1 million in improvements and the creation of additional jobs to meet the grant criteria.

Young and South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman voted to seek the money to make improvements identified in a Neel-Schaffer report completed this year and funded by four of the former plaintiffs. Leyens abstained from the vote, saying he believes the county should pay the bill.