Members of the new Vicksburg Municipal Airport Board approved an equipment purchase Tuesday, taking an initial step in improving the 55-year-old facility and giving it permanence.

The board will spend $3,500 for a device that allows approaching pilots to use their radios to turn on airport lights, an important upgrade since the airport off U.S. 61 South is not staffed at night.

Vicksburg officials voted Aug. 1 to create the seven-member board. During years of litigation after a 1998 vote by the Mayor and Aldermen to close the airport, it was run, essentially, with no public support by users.

The 2-1 vote followed completion of Vicksburg Tallulah Regional at Mound in 1983, and the plan was for the city to place all its support behind the Louisiana facility, eight miles west of Vicksburg, of which the city is one-fourth owner.

The state Supreme Court eventually ruled the city had authority to close its airport and convert the land to industrial use, but administrations changed, and today’s city board has taken a different position, bolstered by a $650,000 state grant users obtained to begin a long-term improvement plan.

The airport board gathered for its first meeting with the City Board on Sept. 29. Tuesday’s meeting at the airport was the third meeting for the airport board and members said they plan to meet monthly.

Members Kimble Slaton and Jay Kilroy said the radio-control of the runway lights will also save money.

&#8220We’re trying to reduce the expense of running the lights and allow people to come in at night,” Kilroy said.

He said many smaller airports, including the Madison Airport, use the radio lighting system.

Also during the meeting, members discussed contacting the city regarding advertising for bids for repair projects, including the terminal roof and windows and the demolition of the second floor of the terminal plus renovation of the existing bathrooms.

Vicksburg Tallulah Regional, of which Warren County, Madison Parish and Tallulah are the other one-fourth owners, has a board with members appointed by the owners. The airport was built after a study showed federal funds available for regional airport construction, but not upgrading existing local airports. More than $6 million in federal money, plus local matching funds, were spent to build the newer airport.

Both operate largely based on user fees and other income. Neither has scheduled commercial service.