Vicksburg Municipal Airport, where a prefab home has served as a temporary terminal for more than a year, is three or four months from opening a renovated base for offices and visiting pilots, airport manager Curt Follmer said Thursday.

The timetable has grown more definite since October, when the inconsistent schedule of city work crews in charge of the renovation prompted Follmer and Mayor Paul Winfield to express doubt about when it would be finished.

Follmer said credit for the speed-up belongs to Sammy Rainey, who has served as the city’s interim building maintenance director since his predecessor, Johnny Puckett, was laid off by the city last month.

“I have the utmost confidence in Sammy Rainey,” Follmer said. “He’s really taken the bull by the horns.”

Winfield affirmed Follmer’s prediction that the renovated terminal will be completed within several months. “I think it’s going to happen,” he said.

The work began under the administration of Laurence Leyens, who approved a renovation of the airport’s nearly 60-year-old terminal building when the city took over complete control of the U.S. 61 South facility in October 2008.

The work, expected to cost about $300,000, is being funded in part by a portion of a $1.3 million Community Development Block Grant Vicksburg was awarded following Hurricane Katrina. The grant requires a 50 percent match from the city, which is being met with in-kind labor and materials supplied by building maintenance crews.

An on-and-off schedule and responsibilities for other city buildings kept those crews from making the terminal project a top priority over the last year, Follmer has said.

When finished, the terminal will include an information desk, meeting space, a pilots’ lounge and office spaces for Follmer, who currently works from the City Hall Annex downtown, and Frank May, who has been managing day-to-day operations from the modular home that’s served as the airport’s terminal since 2008.

A new fire station is also being built at the city airport, which dates to 1950. Vicksburg is also one-fourth owner with Warren County, Tallulah and Madison Parish of Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport at Mound, which became operational in 1993. Both airports have been undergoing upgrades.

Contact Ben Bryant at bbryant@vicksburgpost.com