A new chairman and vice chairman for the Vicksburg Housing Authority Board of Commissioners were named Tuesday at the board’s annual meeting.

Third-year commissioner Christopher Barnett Sr., a 32-year-old contract specialist at the Engineer Research and Development Center, was named chairman, and Charles Wright, a 62-year-old retired telephone company worker and third-year commissioner, was named vice chairman.

Each member of the five-person panel serves five years at the appointment of the City of Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

After his election by fellow board members, Barnett presided over the commission’s first meeting of the year.

Other board members, all of whom attended Tuesday, are Jay Kilroy, a freelance technology consultant; Abraham Green, executive director for Warren County Habitat for Humanity; and John Ferguson, a former Warren County supervisor. Dannie Walker, executive director of VHA, serves as secretary-treasurer of the board.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the Rev. Tommy Miller, director of Good Shepherd Community Center, sought a $25,000 payment for a summer program.

Miller presented requested documents from the 10-week recreational and educational program offered by the center, which has asked monthly since July to be reimbursed. The board has said each month more complete documents must be submitted. The board voted to take under advisement for at least one more month a decision on the payment.

Barnett cited specifically weekly reports and sign-in sheets as lacking.

Confusion on the required documents set in after VHA became more stringent last year following a high-profile arrest of a former VHA employee in 2008 and the firing of former executive director Jim Stirgus Sr. in 2009.

“I feel like Good Shepherd Community Center has fulfilled the contract,” Miller said. “In the past, we gave one yearly report.”