Vicksburg Municipal Airport could receive $725,000 in Federal Aviation Agency money if an application authorized Monday by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen is funded.

The money is expected to be awarded within the next week from the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program and would be the first major FAA allocation since the airport was deemed eligible for federal money in December 2007.

It would fund contracts for two separate projects, one improving automated weather-reporting information and navigation guidance for pilots, and the other for runway pavement maintenance and rehabilitation.

Similar projects are nearing completion at Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport, of which the city is one-fourth owner. VTR is in Mound, La., eight miles northwest of the city airport, completed in 1950.

The requested amount for Vicksburg Municipal would require matching funds of 2.5 percent from both local and state sources. Both city and state would kick in $19,079, if the total applied for is awarded. “It’s almost free money,” said Curt Follmer, airport manager.

The state portion of the matching funds would come from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, Follmer said, and would be a routine transaction.

As an eligible airport, Vicksburg Municipal receives a share of annual allocations from the FAA’s longstanding program of disbursing aviation fuel tax and other revenue back to local airports. The funds being sought in this round are excess funds, and requests must include completed engineering and bids for the work.

Three bids for each contract were opened at the board’s meeting Monday morning by engineering consultant Tom Henderson of Neel-Schafer Inc. Henderson then compiled the bids and completed the application, with the mayor and aldermen reconvening in the afternoon to vote and sign their approval.

“It’s likely that they will fund something less than this application,” Henderson said. “Probably within a week they will come back with what they can give.”

The application will be filed with the FAA’s district office in Jackson.

“This is from this year’s money,” Follmer stressed. “That’s why there’s a bit of a crunch.” The FAA grant pool includes reserves that have not been awarded out of their initial $3.2 billion available nationally in the Airport Improvement Program, plus funds returned that when already-funded grant projects came in under budget, he said.

Projects expected to be completed with the AIP grant are in addition to airport projects already in the pipeline that will be funded by so-called Katrina money — about $1.3 million in federal funds awarded to improve the airport as part of a larger, $5.2 million community block grant given to the city and Warren County by the Mississippi Development Authority.

Under way are designs for expanding the fire station located at the airport as well as designing a new T-hangar and constructing a new, longer runway. The old runway will be turned into a taxiway.

The airport terminal will be remodeled and enlarged by city workers using funds from the city budget.

Vicksburg Municipal Airport upgrades and a possible expansion annexing a 19-acre tract of land north of the current runway have been a major focus of the city’s development plans in the last year, especially for industrial areas south of the city.

VTR is jointly owned with Warren County, Madison Parish and Tallulah. It was constructed starting in 1983 with a $6 million FAA grant and with the understanding that it would become the FAA designated airport for the region. When VTR opened in 1993, Vicksburg Municipal was removed from the list of airports eligible for federal funds. The FAA maintained that position for 14 years through much political wrangling and litigation and then, in a one-paragraph letter, restored Vicksburg Municipal’s eligibility 19 months ago.

At VTR, work on a parallel taxiway, improved lighting, instrument landing and other systems have been under way, also funded by FAA allocations and local matching money.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com