More than $139,000 for a new roof at the Vicksburg Convention Center and a total of $30,000 for security equipment at the convention center and the Vicksburg City Auditorium topped the requests from VenuWorks for the fiscal 2013 budgets for the Vicksburg Convention Center and the auditorium.

VenuWorks is the management company that operates both buildings and has had a contract with the city since 2001 to run them.

The budget requests were presented to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen at a Thursday budget work session by center executive director Troy Thorn and business manager Donna Gray.

The proposed budget for the convention center totals $1.27 million, while the auditorium budget is projected at $336,890.

The convention center is funded by a 2 percent hotel and motel tax and a $250,000 supplement from the city. Gray said the 2 percent tax is projected to raise $555,000 for the present fiscal year. She projects the tax bringing in about $433,000 in fiscal 2013.

Thorn said the 15-year-old convention center roof was built in four sections and leaks in several places. Gray said a contractor asked to look at the roof estimated the replacement project at $139,308.

“When we have a good rain, it leaks and needs to be replaced,” he said. “You can excuse a lot of minor problems, but there is no excuse when you have a major event and water is falling on someone.

“If we can’t replace the roof, we could repair the problem areas and replace the roof over the exhibition area,” he said.

The $30,000 request for additional security equipment involves separate budget items of $15,000 each for the convention center and the auditorium for surveillance cameras and monitoring equipment. Thorn would not say how many cameras VenuWorks considered buying, but the budget request said they would be used to cover additional areas to increase security.

“We’re increasing our security measures,” he said.

The additional cameras come in the wake of an April 8 fight during a “purple party” in which a shot was fired inside the center’s exhibition hall. Everett Defrance, 22, 227 High Hill Drive, the man accused of shooting inside the center, has been indicted by a Warren County grand jury and charged with aggravated assault and malicious mischief. He is out on $25,000 bond and his trial has been set for Nov. 26.

Besides additional security cameras, the auditorium budget also asks for $20,000 to replace air handlers for the building’s air conditioning system, which Gray said have been in the building since 1953. She said VenuWorks has included the replacement request in previous budgets.

“It’s only a matter of time before it goes out,” she said. “We keep it going, but the question is when is it going to collapse. It’s a full-time job keeping it going.”

Mayor Paul Winfield said after the meeting that $20,000 would be removed from the auditorium budget, saying the city will continue maintaining the system.