When local officials and business leaders make their annual visit to Washington, D.C., in February to lobby local delegates for federal funds, their wish list will be a little shorter than in years past.

“In the past we’ve brought them a pretty extensive list, and I want to pear that list down considerably this year,” Warren County Port Commission Executive Director Wayne Mansfield said at a planning meeting for trip Wednesday.

Topping the list of priority projects this year is the stalled project to replace and reopen the Washington Street bridge at Clark Street, while funding for continued Port of Vicksburg improvements, Interstate 20 frontage road work and the development of a regional sanitary sewer system also will be requested. The preliminary list — which does not yet include specific dollar requests — is sure to grow, however, as city and county officials planning to take the trip were not available for the planning meeting Wednesday.

About 15 to 20 people from Vicksburg and Warren County make the annual trip to meet with local delegates and their aides to make pitches for federal dollars to fund local projects and initiatives. The travelers’ airfare and lodging are paid for by the respective boards and bureaus they represent. Business representatives and other individual travelers pay their own way.

This year’s trip is scheduled for Feb. 1-3. The group plans to meet with, among others, Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, as well as U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson and Rodney Alexander — who represents the Louisiana district directly across the river from Vicksburg.

Along with Mansfield, those meeting Wednesday to plan the trip were Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Christi Kilroy, Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Bill Seratt, Vicksburg Main Street Program Executive Director Kim Hopkins, Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation Executive Director Annette Kirklin and attorney David Sessums.

Along with funding requests, the group will urge delegates once again to extend the Rural Renewal Community Program, which Mansfield said is set to expire this month. The program provides federal tax credits for rural employers, and many in the city and county are eligible. The port and Ceres Industrial Park are two notable exceptions.

“No funding is needed for this, but it is something that benefits a lot of business owners in our area,” said Mansfield, noting the program extension was also on the group’s wish list last year.

Mansfield, who has helped organize the trip since 2002, said the Washington, D.C., visit has been “very successful” in years past. Local projects lobbied for that have received significant federal funding include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Lower Mississippi River Museum, which is being developed in the MV Mississippi dry-docked at City Front. Others include funding for the Yazoo Canal widening and dredging project, the city’s water well expansion and the National Park Service’s acquisition of Pemberton’s Headquarters on Crawford Street.

“The big thing is, when we go to sit down with them, they see a collective effort by city, county and business leaders who are all working together with a unified vision — that’s really the key to it,” said Mansfield. “We’ve been told many times that we are one of the most organized and prepared groups that makes the trip, and I think that’s why we’ve been so successful.”

Mayor Paul Winfield, who is expected to make the February trip but was not at the meeting Wednesday, was in Washington D.C. last week to meet with local delegates about the urgent need to find nearly $4 million required to get the Washington Street bridge replacement underway. The 80-year-old bridge at Clark Street — a vital part of the city’s main north-south thoroughfare through downtown — has been closed to all traffic since January.

It is to be replaced with a road-topped railway tunnel. A bid of $8.6 million for the work from Kanza Construction of Topeka, Kan., is in place; however, about $3.8 million in funding is not. The Federal Railroad Administration is to reimburse the city $4 million for the tunnel, which is expected to take up to 18 months to construct once under way.

•

Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com