City acquires former school district ballpark lights

Published 4:45 pm Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Vicksburg’s parks and recreation department will be getting some additional lighting equipment courtesy of the Vicksburg Warren School District.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday approved an interlocal agreement with the school district allowing the city to get the stadium lights previously used to light the football and baseball fields at Vicksburg and Warren Central High Schools.

The schools’ athletic facilities received new lighting systems as part of an upgrade under a school district-wide capital improvements project to renovate and expand school facilities.

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South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour said the school district’s old lighting system is compatible with the lighting systems at the Halls Ferry and Basinsky ballparks.

“We’re going to save a whole lot of money,” he said. “Rather than go and get new lights.”

Monsour said parts are no longer available for the lights at the parks, and added the school district was willing to work with the city on the lights.

“Now we’ll have plenty of them (lights) for a good while until we have to go and put new lighting in.”

In another matter, work on the city’s auxiliary waterline is expected to begin in late November or early December after the board authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to execute the city’s contract with Hemphill Construction of Florence.

The company’s $5.030 million bid was the lowest of five bids submitted for the project and less than the project’s estimated $6 million cost.

The auxiliary waterline will start at the city’s water treatment center on Haining Road and go south, running parallel to Washington Street. It will connect to the existing waterline at Washington Street in front of the Jesse L. Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum.

Flaggs said in July a crossing valve was installed on the city’s main waterline when repairs were made to the line in 2010 after it was damaged during the construction of the museum.

About John Surratt

John Surratt is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in general studies. He has worked as an editor, reporter and photographer for newspapers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post staff since 2011 and covers city government. He and his wife attend St. Paul Catholic Church and he is a member of the Port City Kiwanis Club.

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