Auditorium bill advances to governor

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - The city of Vicksburg is a step closer to getting its auditorium back.

The Vicksburg Post reports (https://bit.ly/1cVoQeg ) that Mississippi lawmakers have sent Senate Bill 2341 to Gov. Phil Bryant. Bryant has until Monday to act on the bill.

The State of Mississippi currently owns the auditorium. The city deeded it to the state in 1985 to take advantage of $1.15 million in state bond money to upgrade the auditorium. The money had been earmarked in 1972 for the Sprague, which was destroyed by fire in 1974.

City officials say the agreement expired in 2010 but the state never returned the 58-year-old building to Vicksburg. They said there were no provisions in the agreement automatically transferring ownership back to the city when it expired.

The city wants to improve the building’s entrance and add a ramp. It can do nothing without ownership of the auditorium. Otherwise, it would have to get approval to make renovations from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, because the building has state landmark status; and from the Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees state property.

The events putting the auditorium on the state’s property list go back to 1984, 10 years after the Sprague fire, when state officials decided to use the state money for the auditorium, which at the time was the site of the Miss Mississippi pageant. Because the $1.15 million was part of a $2.5 million pot of state bond money “for historic projects around Vicksburg,” it could only be used to improve state-owned property.

Under the agreement, the city operates and maintains the building.

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Information from: The Vicksburg Post, https://www.vicksburgpost.com