Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield wants to meet with residents and is planning a series of community meetings beginning in mid-May.

“The meetings will be basically to reach out to the citizens of Vicksburg, listen to their comments and concerns and let each specific area let us know what they’d like to see us accomplish,” Winfield said.

The sessions will be moderated to keep them moving, but people will be free to ask questions and make comments, he said.

Meeting with the Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday, Winfield said he has set one meeting for May 17 at the City Auditorium from 6 to 8 p.m. Other dates, times and locations are not locked in, he said.

The board also acted in closed session to appoint Garnet Van Norman interim public works director for an indefinite period.

Winfield said after the meeting that the permanent appointment will be made after the board and several department heads have finished reviewing his proposed reorganization plan for the city.

In February, Winfield instituted a midweek open- door policy to encourage the voicing of questions and concerns by members of the public, and the planned public meetings are an outgrowth of that.

“I have had hundreds of citizens come through my door on walk-in Wednesdays,” the mayor said following Monday’s meeting. “It’s time to reach out and take an assessment of where we are.”

He plans to present police statistics on crime and calls to emergency personnel and said police Chief Walter Armstrong or other police department officials will be on hand.

“This is also going to be an informational time, so people can learn about what we have accomplished,” Winfield said. “And there are some things we are going to have to do differently and things we are going to have to do better.”

During the meeting, the board voted to give the police department $500 for supplies and food to stage the summer youth basketball program again this year.

Armstrong told the board the 2010 program had significantly reduced youth crime in the city from its 2009 levels.

“We had more than 500 young people sign up for the program last year,” Armstrong said. “It gives our youth something to do while they are out (of school) for the summer time.”

This year, a $5 entry fee is planned to help pay for the costs, but Armstrong said they are looking for private and corporate sponsors to make donations to cover the fees for kids who can’t afford them.

It did not take long to get the first donation. Minutes after Armstrong’s presentation, owners of Newbreak Communications, who appeared before the board to get approval to install wireless internet equipment on several structures in the city, pledged to sponsor 40 children.

“We want our neighborhoods to get safer,” Winfield said, speaking in support of the basketball program and his planned community meetings. “If we invest in our youth now we won’t have to invest in them in the future — they’ll invest in themselves.”

Armstrong said the basketball program will be open to ages 7 to 18 and will be held at the two junior high schools on Baldwin Ferry Road from June 7 to July 15. The sessions will run from 4 to 10 p.m. and will include guest speakers from the community talking about their professional and life experiences, he said.