With the guarantee that display items will be available at least 20 years, Vicksburg and museum officials bridged a legal impasse Thursday, allowing the work that remains for the Vicksburg Transportation Museum to move forward.

The agreement resolves questions about control of artifacts and operation of the museum, which will open downtown in the Levee Street Depot, the former station and offices for Illinois Central Railroad. Work to renovate and stabilize the 100-year-old building will total between $2 million to $3 million.

The bidding process for restoration waited upon resolution between the city and Vicksburg Transportation Museum Inc., the nonprofit group that has collected money and exhibits for the museum, because grant funding is conditional upon assurances that the museum would have exhibits to display through 20 years.

Satisfying the condition hit a snag over museum directors’ concerns that a future administration could choose a new group to operate the museum. Vicksburg Transportation Museum Inc. has begun collecting memorabilia and will own most of the museum’s exhibits, but another potential snag was that some items might be on loan and removed before the period stipulated in the grant.

The agreement signed Thursday by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen is an amendment to the sub-grant agreement entered May 16, and guarantees that at least 60 percent of the exhibits will remain on loan to the city for 20 years regardless of who is operating the museum.

Lamar Roberts, director of the Vicksburg Battlefield Museum and the push behind efforts to open a transportation museum in Vicksburg, said such an event seems unlikely, but added that language in the document gives the museum board access to inspect the condition of exhibits on loan to the city, and charges the city with keeping artifacts in good condition while they are on loan.

“It’s important to spell out the details beforehand,” he said.

More than $2 million of donations are in hand, Roberts said, and the group has raised almost half of about $330,000 needed to match approved grants. Only about $1,500 of that has come from private donors in Vicksburg, in addition to a $20,000 contribution from the Warren County Board of Supervisors, Roberts said.

The City of Vicksburg, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and MDOT will approve all bids and architect’s plans. No city funds are budgeted for the project.

About two years of work are ahead before a museum will open, Roberts said, “unless something magical happens.”

When completed, it will be part of a multi-asset park area at City Front. Already open are a splash fountain and the first of two play areas. The MV Mississippi has been moved into position to be part of a static display included with a Corps of Engineers Interpretive Center. Murals on the floodwall help tell the city’s history.