NATCHEZ — Six years after the City of Natchez sold the former pecan factory lot to developers for $500,000, the board of aldermen voted Tuesday to buy the land on the Mississippi River bluff back at a cost of $750,000.

The vote, which authorized Mayor Butch Brown and City Clerk Donnie Holloway to move forward with the purchase, is another step in the direction of settling a September 2007 lawsuit filed by Worley Brown, the would-be condo developers who bought the site but were blocked from development by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History because of the site’s historical significance.

A $763,000 mini-bond the aldermen voted to take out from Britton & Koontz Bank during the meeting will fund the purchase.

The aldermen also voted to approve a revised budget for fiscal year 2011-2012, which Holloway said would end with a $255,000 fund balance in September.

Having a fund balance at the end of the fiscal year will help the city avoid having to take out a temporary loan for operations down the road, Holloway said.

The city clerk also told the aldermen that the city has until Aug. 29 to redeem the back taxes on the Brumfield School property for the years 2009 and 2010. The taxes for those years were bought at tax sale, and to redeem them before the deadline the city will need to pay $61,472.62.

The city bought the mortgage to the Brumfield property in January while the building was in the process of being foreclosed upon. It was owned by Gliechman and Company but operated by Stanford Management, which abandoned the building in February 2011.

In other news:

-The aldermen voted to change the process of appealing a decision made by the preservation commission.

After Tuesday’s vote, appeals will be heard by the Adams County Chancery Court rather than by the aldermen. A committee formed by Alderwomen Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis and Sarah Smith and Board Attorney Hyde Carby recommended the change.

The aldermen have heard appeals for preservation commission decisions since a change in 2005. Prior to that, the appeals were heard in circuit court. The aldermen have always heard planning commission appeals; that policy remained unchanged.

-The aldermen voted to adopt a Section III plan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The adoption was made at the behest of Southwest Mississippi Planning and Development District Planner Allen Laird, who said the policy had to be adopted in order to apply for a grant program in which the city is seeking to participate.

“HUD is coming down hard on all communities to adopt these plans,” Laird said.

“It is basically stating that when HUD money is spent, we make every effort to encourage the contractor to hire local Section III employees, who would be low income.”

The plan also requires that efforts to hire minority-owned firms be made for HUD-financed projects.

“We do that already,” Laird said. “We send out certified mail to any minority or women-owned contractors, letting them know the project is there and giving them a chance to bid.”

-The aldermen voted to award a bid of $15,000 to Smith Painting to paint the Natchez-Adams-Wilkinson Library.

City Inspector Fred Galler told the aldermen the library had raised $35,000 for the project, which includes painting the library and repairing broken shutters.

-Natchez Trace Parkway Superintendent Cam Sholley presented Brown with a Natchez Trace Post Rider — a decorative seal that symbolizes the Trace — in recognition of efforts he has made through the years to help the cause of the Trace.

“Getting the Trace completed has required a significant number of champions who helped acquire land, acquire funding and put the right parts together that made the parkway become what it is today,” Sholly said.

“Along that time horizon, the champions that have come along have played a powerful role. Mayor Brown played an integral role in the 90s and into the 2000s helping us complete portions of that parkway.”

-The aldermen voted to purchase a 30-ton compressor and three fans for an air-conditioning unit at the City Auditorium.

Galler said only one of the building’s four air-conditioning units is currently functioning, and getting another unit working will be good for the health of the functioning unit.

“Instead of running for 10 minutes and shutting off, it is having to run for 30 minutes,” Galler said. “We are straining it this way.”

The compressor and fans will be bought for $7,089.23, and the city will provide the Freon, Galler said.

-The aldermen voted for the record to acknowledge they had received information regarding a $2,310,048 grant application for transportation enhancement funds for the development of the riverfront park project in conjunction with the Magnolia Bluffs Casino.

The request to acknowledge the application was brought by City Engineer David Gardner.