The long discussed water park planned for Vicksburg took a big step toward becoming a reality Friday.

During a special called meeting, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen adopted a resolution to enable the city to go forward with applying for $500,000 in general obligation bonds that had been set aside for the project by the state of Mississippi.

The money was earmarked for the project by current South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour when he was a member of the state legislature.

“We (the city of Vicksburg) are doing everything we have to do on our end to finish up what I started in the legislature to get those funds there to help them out,” Monsour said. “Then, the city will participate in any way we can to help them get to where they need to be so they can get this project done.”

When the project was first announced in 2016, the water park, which will be called Blues Beach Family Waterpark, was projected to cost almost $13 million to build and create 12 full-time and 300 part-time jobs in Vicksburg.

“It is our hope that they would be able to move the process along that would allow us to get started in time for a memorial weekend 2019 opening, but a more realistic timeline may be early spring 2020. It just depends on how quickly they can get the process going,” said Chuck Hendrix, whose company Innovative Leisure Partners will design and manage the waterpark. 

This is the second time the board has passed this resolution related to the bonds with the first time coming in Dec. 2016, but the project has been repeatedly delayed due to issues with the South Frontage Road expansion project that has to be completed before the park can be built.

The city of Vicksburg approved the last piece of the frontage road expansion in April when the board awarded a contract to Hemphill Construction Co. of Florence to relocate the city’s utility lines, which will allow the expansion project to move forward.

Hemphill Construction Co.’s bid for the project was $1.576 million, with the city’s share being $600,000.

The expansion of the frontage road is expected to cost $20 million and include an overpass crossing the railroad tracks to give direct access to the Outlets of Vicksburg.

Hendrix said despite speculation to the contrary, their plan is to still build the water park on South Frontage Road in the vicinity of the outlet mall.

“As far as I know, it is the frontage road there in front of the outlet mall,” Hendrix said of where the park will be located.

“I’d say they probably need to get me involved in a little site selection if that (placing it elsewhere) is what they intend.”

The project is being funded mostly through private investors, but Monsour said Innovative Leisure Partners will also be applying for tourism tax credits to fund portions of the project. The as yet to be named private investors will own the park once it is completed.

“The city did what it is supposed to do by applying for this money that has been set aside by the state, because we are the arm that gets this for them,” Monsour said.

“You’ve actually got a private group of investors who have been spearheading this for a while. They will go through MDA (Mississippi Development Authority) to do an application for the tourism tax credits and at that time you will see who they are.”