CITY GOVERNMENT Founded in 1811 and incorporated 14 years later, the City of Vicksburg operates under a special charter.

Vicksburg has three elected officials: two aldermen and a mayor. They make up the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen, which operates from City Hall at 1401 Walnut St.

The aldermen are elected from wards that split the city almost in half.

The mayor is elected by the entire city and is in charge of the city board meetings, but has just one vote of the three and no veto power.

Mayor Willis Thompson, Ward 1 Alderman Thomas“ T. J.” Mayfield, and Ward 2 Alderwoman Vickie Bailey were elected in June 2025 for a four-year term.

Under the city’ s charter, the board must meet on the first and third Mondays, the 10th and the 25th of each month. The board also may meet at any other time of the month for a special called meeting, but must give public notice. At least two members of the board must be present to have a quorum before any action is taken.

All meetings are held in the Robert M. Walker Building, 1415 Walnut St., and are televised live on the city’ s cable channel, VTV.

Anyone who wants to address the city board must first be placed on the agenda or be recognized by the mayor during a meeting.

To be placed on the agenda, a person must contact the City Clerk’ s Office and present a written request, including the subject matter to be brought before the board.

The mayor and aldermen also appoint the city’ s division heads including the police chief, fire chief, city clerk, city attorney and city sexton. Those division heads answer directly to the board that directs the departments and sets budgets.

Budgets for the city are created in the summer, and the fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

Revenue for the city comes primarily from taxes on property, sales and gaming. The City of Vicksburg also operates municipal gas, water and sewer services and contracts for citywide garbage collection.

ACTION LINE / EMERGENCY

Vicksburg residents may access information about the government or get answers to problems online or by phone through two services.

The Action Line offers residents one number to call for city-related issues, questions or requests for services.“ Info To Go” gives residents answers to 400 commonly asked questions about local government.

Both services are available online or by telephone 24 hours a day.

The Action Line takes calls at City Hall from 7 a. m. to 5 p. m. Monday through Friday. Those calls are

WARREN COUNTY DATA Population 43,076 44,722

Unemployment Rate Aug. 2019 2023 4.4 7.2 %

WHITE 48.1 46.4 percent %

BLACK / OTHER 51.9 50.4 percent %

QUICK NOTES

• Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi.

• Vicksburg is a state-certified retirement community.

• During the Civil War, Vicksburg was the site of the Siege of Vicksburg, a significant event in which the Union gained control of the entire Mississippi River. Because the city fell on July 4, 1863, and due to lingering memories of the harshness of the Union force’ s siege, the people of the city did not celebrate Independence Day for the next 81 years, until 1945.

• Railroad access to the west was by transfer steamers and ferry barges until a combination railroad and highway bridge was built in 1929. This is the only Mississippi River rail crossing between Baton Rouge and Memphis and the adjacent I-20 bridge is the only highway crossing between Natchez and Greenville.

• On March 12, 1894, the popular soft drink Coca-Cola was bottled for the first time in Vicksburg

by Joseph Biedenharn, a local confectioner. Today, surviving nineteenth-century Biedenharn soda bottles are prized by collectors of Coca-Cola memorabilia. Also, Biedenharn’ s old store still survives as a tourist attraction.

• Vicksburg served as the primary refugee gathering point and temporary housing during the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 which submerged an area of the Mississippi Delta nearly the size of New England.

• That flood was the impetus toward the establishment of the United States Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station as the primary hydraulics laboratory to develop protection from the River.

• That establishment, now known as the Engineer Research and Development Center( ERDC), works in the areas of military engineering, information technology, environmental engineering, hydraulic engineering and geotechnical engineering.

2026 CHAMBER GUIDE • 63