The Warren County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution from The Partnership to amend and extend the contract of port director and chamber of commerce president Pablo Diaz.

The supervisors took the action during their regular Monday morning meeting during a presentation from Dr. Jeff Holland, chairman of the Economic Development Foundation who was representing The Partnership — the Warren County Port Commission, Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Foundation.

Holland said the resolution requests the supervisors “support approval of payments employed by the addendum to the contract that is part of that resolution.” The resolution also explicitly acknowledges that future boards of supervisors may review amendments to the resolution.

“We believe this to be very much in the best interest of our community as it supports the economic development activities of our community both now and into the future,” Holland said.

District 1 Supervisor John Arnold, who asked the supervisors to table the matter two weeks ago when The Partnership requested support from the board, made a motion to approve the resolution, which was unanimously approved by the board.

Last week, Arnold and the supervisors met with Holland, Diaz and other EDF members during a working session to clarify concerns Arnold had in regard to the contract extension of Diaz.

The Port Commission voted in November to extend the contract of Diaz to 2024, which included a 7.38 percent raise increase of his yearly salary from $190,000 to $204,022. His contract was set to expire in 2020.

The contract of Diaz is broken down with the county paying $154,000 of his salary, as well as county employee benefits. The remaining $50,000 comes from an agreement with the city of Vicksburg and Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce that is given to the Port Commission.

In other matters

The supervisors approved a board order of the Emergency Road Bridge Fund that the county is eligible for. Federal legislation provided for the additional funding and the county has until mid-December to request funds for current road and bridge projects, according to county engineer John McKee.

Among the county application projects up for funding are bridge replacement projects on Ballground Road, Freetown Road, Old Highway 27, Long Lake Road, Fisher Ferry Road and Lee Road, which has two bridges that are in need of replacement.

“This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often,” McKee told the board.

Katrina Stokes, director of the Warren County Vicksburg Public Library, gave the supervisors an update on events at the library and thanked the board of supervisors for its support — in particular, the recently replaced new roof that has completely eliminated leaks and the replacement of the elevator at the facility.

“It really pulls together the recent renovations that have been made to the library,” Stokes said.