Getting the old stadium lights from Vicksburg High and Warren Central High School for the Halls Ferry and Bazinzky ballparks will cost the city $500.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday approved a resolution to buy the lights from the Vicksburg Warren School District for use at Halls Ferry and Bazinky. Initially, money to buy the school district lights was to come from South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour’s discretionary fund, but Mayor George Flaggs Jr. amended the plan to have the money come from the city’s general fund budget.

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.

Because the old system’s equipment is compatible with the lights at Halls Ferry and Bazinsky, Monsour recommended the city sign an interlocal agreement with the school district to get the lights.

Friday, city attorney Nancy Thomas said an Attorney General’s opinion questioned using an interlocal agreement.

“The AG’s office called and said they didn’t want to do it that way; they wanted us to purchase them pursuant to the intergovernmental transfer,” she said.

The lighting system for the parks, Monsour said, is obsolete and parts are no longer available from the manufacturer. The school district lights, he said, will be used as replacements when equipment on the parks’ system goes out.

Monsour said purchasing the school district lights “is a move we are taking to save the city a lot of money by (not) having to go with new lighting and new poles.”

With the school district equipment, he said, “We should be good for several years without having to go out for new equipment.”