ESG, the Macon, Ga.-based company presently managing the city of Vicksburg’s Water Treatment Plant on Haining Road, and two European-based companies have expressed an interest in a long-tern agreement to manage the plant.

It took several votes for the Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday to take the proposals from ESG, Veolia North America and Severn Trent Services to manage and operate the water plant for up to 10 years under advisement.

The board initially voted to accept the ESG plan, which was believed to be the lone proposal submitted, only to rescind it about 45 minutes later after discovering Veolia and Severn Trent had submitted proposals.

The discovery came just after the board voted to go into closed session to discuss several personnel issues. Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said a man representing one of the companies told him another bid had been submitted Thursday, initiating a search for the missing documents. They were found in the purchasing department’s warehouse, where they had been delivered by Federal Express.

The man who talked to Van Norman had left the meeting and was not in the boardroom when the other packages were found.

“It says clearly on the box, ‘Office of the City Clerk,’ so I’m not sure why FedEx put them in the warehouse, but that’s where they were,” City Attorney Nancy Thomas said.

“They’re properly labeled,” Van Norman said.

The board returned to open session to rescinded the ESG vote and accept all three proposals.

Veolia Water North America is a subsidiary of Veolia, an international environmental company based in France with offices in several cities in the U.S. The company’s proposal came from its Baltimore office.

Severn Trent, also an international company, is based in Coventry, England, with an office in Houston, Texas.

The board decided in October to seek proposals to manage the water plant after plant director Pat McGuffie resigned Aug. 7 to go to the Culkin Water District, and the city was unable to hire a certified operator to comply with Mississippi Department of Health regulations, and hired ESG on a temporary basis to run the plant.

CDM Smith, a Jackson-based company, was hired by the city to help prepare specifications for a management contract and help city officials determine if privatization was feasible.