The city of Vicksburg is getting more than $170,000 in Federal Aviation Administration funds for improvements to the Vicksburg Municipal Airport.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Thursday authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to sign an agreement with the FAA for $176,750.40 to cover 90 percent of the cost of two contracts totaling $196,406 for projects at the 67-year-old airport to improve pilot safety.

The FAA had set aside $441,000 for the projects.

Under the agreement, the city and the State of Mississippi will pay the remaining 10 percent of the projects’ costs. The board Tuesday approved an agreement with the Mississippi Department of Transportation to pay half, or $9820.30, of the $19,640.60 match. The city will pay the remainder.

The board’s decision came about two weeks after it accepted a $54,221 bid from Killen Electric Inc. to install the precision approach path indicator, or PAPI, and one of $142,185 from Look’s Great Service Inc. of Columbia to clear the woods from the north end of the runway, and more than three weeks after it decided to keep the airport open.

City officials considered closing the airport in favor of Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport in Mound, La., which is jointly owned by the city, Warren County, Madison County, La., and Tallulah, La. They decided to keep Vicksburg Municipal open after visits to both airports revealed the city’s airport was at full capacity and getting revenue from fuel sales and hangar rentals, and VTR would be unable to handle the increase of planes moving there from Vicksburg.