NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez has $67,000 left over from an energy efficiency grant and in the sweltering heat of summer, city officials plan to use the cash to cool off a few city buildings.

Five city buildings — City Hall, Natchez fire stations No. 1 and 2, Natchez Public Works and the Natchez Police Department — are on a priority list for air conditioning system replacements.

Natchez City Engineer David Gardner said the city would use the $67,000 until it runs out, starting with replacing five units at City Hall.

“If we don’t use (the money), we will have to send it back,” Gardner told the Natchez Board of Aldermen at its meeting last week.

The original grant came from the Mississippi Development Authority’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program to replace bulbs in traffic lights with LED bulbs, Gardner said. He said the city was able to save a significant amount of money of the traffic light project because city employees did some of the work instead of contracting it out.

The rest of the grant, he said, has to be used for some type of energy efficiency project in the city, such as replacing the outdated and problematic air conditioning units at municipal buildings.

The five buildings were chosen, Gardner said, because their air conditioning units are the most outdated and need constant repair.

Some of the aldermen asked Gardner to see if the Natchez City Council Chambers qualified for the grant to replace the air conditioning unit, since it was not working during last week’s meeting.

Gardner said, however, the units at the chambers are newer units and do not qualify for replacement.

“We put those units in 10 or 12 years ago, so that goes to show you how old the ones at City Hall are,” he said. “I’ve been here almost 20 years, and the units at City Hall were there when I started.”