million headed here for Corps museum, boat|[12/9/05]

Plans begun under the Joe Loviza administration to build a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers interpretive museum appear to be moving forward, more than a decade later, with partial funding from Congress.

Congress has appropriated $51 million to the Corps in the 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. The act, signed by President Bush, authorizes the Corps to use up to $5 million in Vicksburg for the museum, said a spokesman for Sen. Thad Cochran, senior senator from Mississippi.

The Corps is the branch of the U.S. Army assigned to civil works, including flood control and navigation on the Mississippi River, and the museum will depict the history of its projects.

A major component of the museum will be a former Corps flagship, the MV Mississippi, as part of the display – providing one of few places anywhere that visitors can board an actual towboat.

The museum plans also include moving the 100-year-old iron Fairground Street bridge to the site around the old Levee Street Depot, said Tommy Hengst, senior project manager for the Vicksburg District of the Corps of Engineers.

Overall, the Corps’ work is tied in to a makeover of the City Front area, which already includes a series of murals on the flood wall and the Art Park play area.

&#8220It’s a huge win for downtown Vicksburg,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens. &#8220It’s something we’ve really been working on for a long time. It’s a huge deal.”

The MV Mississippi has been moored in the Yazoo Diversion Canal since the city purchased it for $1 in 1995. During his term as mayor, Loviza, a former community college dean, emphasized the need to capitalize on the area’s transportation-related history, including river and rail commerce.

The 218-foot towboat was built in 1961 and served the Corps for 30 years, pushing barges up and down the Mississippi River and used by the Mississippi River Commission for inspection of flood control and navigation works.

The Corps has had a major presence in Vicksburg, almost since the city was founded. Today, a series of installations research, develop and oversee nationally and internationally from complexes around the city.

Hengst said the MV Mississippi, which will be moved on land, will be the largest exhibit of the museum.

Separately, Lamar Roberts, the founder of the Gray and Blue Naval Museum, is leading an effort to build a transportation museum at the old depot.

Initial plans for the Corps museum were drafted in 1992 with $2 million for planning. Now that the additional $5 million has been approved, Hengst said the city and the Corps plan to move forward.

&#8220What we will do this year is finish the design for the relocation of the MV Mississippi from the Yazoo Diversion Canal to its permanent site on the museum grounds,” Hengst said.

He said the contract to move the vessel will also include repairing the vessel that has begun to deteriorate after 10 years of sitting without maintenance.

&#8220We’ll fix it up,” Hengst said.

He also said the design phase can now be completed by Evans-Graves Engineers of Baton Rouge.

&#8220They’ve completed design of the museum and Fairground bridge relocation,” Hengst said. &#8220They are picking up the design and moving forward with it for the MV Mississippi. We had to suspend it on the MV Mississippi because we did not have enough money left in the authorized amount for them to complete it.”

Hengst said the next step will be to award the contract for the construction of the museum project.

&#8220We should award the MV Mississippi this year and I see no reason why we cannot award the contract for the museum in fiscal year 2007, which begins in Oct. 2006,” Hengst said.

&#8220Construction would probably go into fiscal year 2008.”

There is one more hurdle for the city to complete before the project’s completion, however.

Hengst said the total estimated cost of the museum project, including the bridge and MV Mississippi, is $15 million. He said Congress has authorized the whole project, but allocated only $7 million so far.

&#8220What we’ll say is this is the estimate of what we can take to build this,” Hengst said. &#8220We’ll tell the City of Vicksburg this is what we have and this is what it’ll take. It’s their responsibility to go and convince Congress they need to appropriate additional funds.”

Federal agencies may submit budget requests, but are not allowed to lobby.

He said representatives of the city went to Washington at the beginning of the year to lobby for funds and their voices were heard.

Sen. Cochran, a Republican, is chairman of Senate Appropriations and has worked to secure funds for previous local projects, especially in the Vicksburg National Military Park.