Crews for DirtWorks Corp. have begun stripping the roof on the City Hall Annex to prepare the building for a cover.

“We began Monday removing the material and pulling up the plywood to examine the structure underneath and see what condition it’s in,” said DirtWorks vice president Hunt Gilliland.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Friday awarded a $295,000 contract to replace the roof, including the beams and trusses that support it. The board Monday transferred $302,000 from the city’s surplus cash account to the administration capital account to pay for the project.

Gilliland did not know how many trusses and beams will have to be replaced, pending an examination of the roof’s support system. He said the roof will be reworked to improve drainage, and the work is expected to be completed in 80 days, around the first of the year.

The annex had been closed since Aug. 29 after an engineer’s report indicated the trusses and beams supporting the roof’s rafters were in poor shape from water damage and inadequate anchoring.

Five of the eight city departments occupying the building were moved to other city buildings in September, and all city board meetings were moved to the Vicksburg Convention Center on Mulberry Street.

City employees moved the Mapping Department to offices in the Street Department building on Army Navy Drive. Building maintenance superintendent Sammie Rainey said computers and some of the servers for TV23 will be moved to a classroom in the adjacent Vicksburg Senior Center. The remaining TV equipment, he said, will remain at the TV23 offices in the annex and be covered with tarpaulins.

The Senior Center is the only city department in the annex that is not moving.

Formerly the Neill Building, the annex was bought by the city in 1995 for $250,000. It comprises three buildings facing South and Walnut streets, and its connected roof has been patched several times.