Consistency is often a key to success in any work environment, as is having as many employees and materials under one roof as possible.

For the Vicksburg Main Street program, the ability to house everything under one roof hasn’t been possible since they were evacuated from their office in the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Depot due to potential flooding in January.

“We do need to find a home,” Kim Hopkins, Main Street’s executive director, said at its monthly board meeting Thursday. “It’s impossible to keep things organized.”

Because power was cut to the Old Depot building when the floodwall was in place, the program was forced to relocate.

Currently, the program is housed in the City Hall Annex and Hopkins said it has tents, golf carts and other material stored across downtown—in other city buildings, in a fire department and with board chairman Daryl Hollingsworth.

“They have filing cabinets and offices in the annex, and all the rest of their stuff is scattered. It’s very disruptive. It’s all important stuff, and we want to keep it all together,” he said.

During the meeting, board members made a motion to begin searching for a solution to Main Street’s location issues.

“It’s really the city’s decision to make, but in my opinion, lets put them there forever and ever amen. Let’s call (a place) our Main Street office,” Hollingsworth said.

In other news, the board agreed to support the local Little Free Libraries project, which aims to put a free book exchange in strategic locations around the city, and reinitiated its Paint for Progress initiative.

The initiative aims to secure paint for the two parking decks downtown, which have been in the process of being painted for a year, Hollingsworth said.

“We need to cover up the graffiti now that the lighting (in the decks) is up and we’re making everyone feel secure,” he said.

He and two teams of AmeriCorps volunteers have repainted most of the outside of the south parking deck, but the north parking deck still needs to be completely repainted, he added.

“It’s a sign of growth that parking is becoming a problem,” he said. “Both parking garages are going to be needed as we grow. Based on growth the last two years, the shortfall of parking is outpacing our growth.”

If interested in donating money or paint, contact the Vicksburg Main Street office at 601-634-4527.